
Glass LAv-^ VZT) 

Book r l A^ ^ 



THE LIFE 

1%- 



OF 



LAMOIGNON 

MALESHERBES, 



FORMERLY 



FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE COURT OF AIDS, AND 
MINISTER OF STATE; MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY, Ac. 

FROM THE FRENCH. 



THE REV. EDWARD MANGIN, A. M. 

AUTHOR OF 

Oddities and Outlines, George the Third, a Novel; an Essay 
on Light Reading, tfc. 



"His life was gentle; and the elements 

So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up, 

And say to all the world— this was a man." 

Shakspearb. 



SECOND EDITION. 

bath: printed by gye and son, 
for james carpenter and son, london, and 

JOHN UPHAM, BATH. 



I8W. 



<K^ 






TO 

MRS. ALICIA LEFANU, 

OF DUBLIN. 



Permit me to assign my reason 
for prefixing your name to a volume containing 
the character of a statesman. Malesherbes was 
more than a great politician ; he was not only the 
energetic and persevering friend of human rights, 
and the firm opponent, as a minister and a citizen^ 
of popular and kingly encroachments, but was justly 
admired for opinions as liberal as his mind was en- 
lightened, and for talents and accomplishments which 
were exceeded by nothing except the tenderness of 
his feelings. 



IT DEDICATION. 

The detail of so much excellence cannot be placed 
under more suitable protection than that of one, on 
whose heart and understanding the same praise has 
been bestowed; and who, in addition to genius, taste 
and courtly manners, is distinguished for an intu 
mate acquaintance with elegant literature in general, 
and especially with that of France : I therefore 
beg leave to offer the work to You, as a public 
mark of the high respect with which 1 am, 

Madam, 

Your most obedient, 

Humble Servant, 
EDWARD MANGIN. 

Bath, December , 1813. 



oOME years have elapsed since the first Edition of 
this Work appeared. The subject was at that period more interesting 
than it now is, only as the events to which it relates were of more 
recent date ; for of Malesherbes, who stood boldly and almost 
alone in perilous times, between the court and the people; who, for 
wisdom, valour, and integrity was the ornament of his age and 
nation, and who died, as he lived, the champion, not of a faction 
but of mankind ; the story will never cease to be a just object of gene- 
ral interest and applause — until — virtue shall become the universal 
practice of onr species, or be altogether extinct, 

December, 1818. 



ERRATA: 

Page 61, Line 2, for Richlieu read Richelieu 
Page 65, Line 6, for advise read devise 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



THE celebrated man whose life we attempt to 
delineate, has acted too conspicuous a part, both be- 
fore and since the Revolution, not to interest every 
tlass of readers. 

Of whatever complexion they may be, Males- 

herbes will inspire them with the tenderest concern; 

and they must take pleasure even in weeping over the 

fate of an old man, who was one of the most illustrious 

martyrs of revolutionary cruelty. 

i 

The life of a sage is a lesson to posterity ;— thus 
fathers of families, philosophers, senators, magis- 
trates, every man engaged in public affairs, will, in 
the Life of Malesherbes, find a model of firmness, 
of loftiness of soul, and of all that the sublimes! vir- 
tue can exhibit 



viii the author's preface. 

We have had recourse to the purest sources for the 
facts here placed before the public eye; and have 
presented Malesherbes under various points of 
view; as president of the Court of Aids, minister of 
state, the advocate of Lewis XVI. and, lastly, as 
a simple citizen. 

We have frequently made him speak fqt himself, 
and been careful to report, with accuracy, those dis- 
courses which he pronounced in circumstances the 
most trying ; persuaded that a better way could not 
be found to give an adequate notion of his character. 

We have, besides, written his life with the greatest 
plainness : the flowers of eloquence occasionally sei ve 
to cover the infirmities of a great man ; but the long 
career of Malesherbes was not sullied by any, and 
the recital of his actions requires no extraneous orna- 
ments: Virtue should appear without decoration, 
and to Truth alone belongs the power of displaying 
her beautiful image. 



THE LIFE OF 
LAMOIGNON-MALESHERBES. 



VyHRETIEN-GuiLLAUME LAMOIGNON 

Malesuerbes was born at Paris the 16th 
of December 1721 ; he was descended from 
a family distinguished both for its ancient 
nobility, and for the eminent services it had 
rendered lo the state. 

Guillaume de Lamoignon, his grand- 
father, was first president of the parliament 
of Paris; he was an admirer of science and 
elegant literature, and honoured with his 
particular esteem the famous Boileau, and 
all the celebrated poets of the classic age of 
Lewis XIV. His eldest son was Chretien- 
Francois de Lamoignon, at one time ad- 
▲ 



£ THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES, 

vocate-general, and afterwards president of 
the parliament; he died in 1709. His second 
son, GciLLAUME de Lamoignon, president 
of the Court of Aids, and afterwards chan- 
cellor of France, was the father of him whose 
life is the subject of the following pages. 

Malesherbes, destined for the highest 
offices of the state, applied himself with 
enthusiasm to the study of the laws. 

In his father he possessed an admirable 
master, a tender friend, and indeed an ex- 
ample of every shining quality. 

This incorruptible magistrate was entirely 
devoted to the duties of his station, and 
was pleased to see himself live again in a 
son whom he admired; he followed with 
anxiety his progress in the career of juris- 
prudence, and guided his uncertain steps in 
the perplexing labyrinth of laws, ordinances, 
and customs, which then embarrassed the 
legislation of the kingdom. 



THE LIFE Of MALE3HERBES. 3 

The young Malesuerbes, possessing an 
intense love of application, could not fail to 
benefit by the wise precepts of his father. 
After studying with great advantage under 
the Jesuits, and obtaining a perfect know- 
ledge of equity, he employed his hours upon 
history and political economy, and evinced 
a degree of erudition very rare, at a time 
when all the young men of rank, influenced 
by a corrupt court*, abandoned themselves 
to the pursuit of effeminate pleasures. 

His father then could have procured him 
the post of counsellor to tha parliament; 
but he too well knew the importance of such 
a situation, and would not allow his son to 
be confounded with the herd of those, who, 
purchasing the liberty of deciding on the 
lives and properties of their fellow-citizens r 
thought themselves exempted from the ne- 
cessity of acquiring that knowledge which 
* The court of Lewis XV. 
A2 



* THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

would fit them to exercise with dignity the 
most august functions of the magistracy, 

With the intention of preparing his son, 
he had him appointed deputy solicitor-gen- 
eral; in appearance a place of great inferi- 
ority, but which gave him an opportunity 
to try his first steps in the walk of politics. 

In right of his office, Malesuerbes fre- 
quently addressed the parliament, and there 
always displayed unerring good sense, a 
sweet, persuasive eloquence, and a profound 
acquaintance with mankind and human af- 
fairs: in short, he made himself remarkable 
in a situation wherein others were scarcely 
noticed. 

It was not until he had undergone such a 
trial as this, that his father obtained him the 
appointment of counsellor to the parliament 
of Paris; and he was then only twenty-four 
years old, but had more reflection and more 
judgment than many of his seniors. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 5 

Six years after he obtained the reversion 
of the place of first president of the Court 
of Aids, held by his father, whom he ulti- 
mately succeeded, December 14, 1750. 

The Court of Aids was created at the time 
when taxes were first imposed, to regulate 
which its jurisdiction was established* 

It was at the earnest instance of the entire 
nation, represented by its deputies, that this 
establishment was resolved on ; it held a dis- 
tinguished rank amongst the sovereign courts 
of the kingdom, and was empowered to ad- 
just the collection of subsidies necessary for 
the expenses of the state, and to oppose tlie 
force of justice against those who should 
dare to abuse the name or authority of the so- 
vereign: It was esteemed one of the strongest 
barriers against the rapacity of revenue offi- 
cers, and the safest asylum from oppression : 
in a word, it was the peculiar province of 
A3 



V THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

that court to enrol all edicts or letters pa- 
tent which regarded the creation or aboli- 
tion of taxes. 

Malesherbes found himself placed at the 
head of that venerable tribunal precisely 
in the moment when a bloody war, and the 
scandalous profusion of the court, had ex- 
hausted all the national resources, and 
bowed down the people beneath the pressure 
of incessant taxation. 

We shall now see, by a cursory view of 
his conduct, what courage he displayed, and 
what indignation he evinced against despo- 
tism, during the twenty-five years that he 
filled this important office. 

A declaration of the king, dated July 7, 
1756, authorized a demand, on all traders, 
of one twentieth part of the profits of their 
industry. This disastrous tax excited gene- 
ral discontent, and opened a way to the 
most dreadful grievances. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES, ? 

Malesherbes, on that occasion, made 
the following energetic remonstrances: "The 
tax," he exclaimed, " spares not even those 
whose daily labour gives value to the pro- 
ductions of the earth, and augments the 
mass of real opulence: subjects indispensable 
to the state, since it is from these alone the 
general trade of the kingdom derives all its 
vigour and all its substance ; men devoted 
to toil and pain, whose indigence alone 
should secure them protection; and whose 
obscurity exposes them to acts of injustice 
which pass unpunished because they remain 
unknown. To the meanest agents is com- 
mitted the privilege of setting a price on the 
abilities and industry of the hapless artisan. 
What abuses may not arise from thus sub- 
dividing an arbitrary authority ? and what 
redress remains for the wretched creature, 
who has neither leisure enough, nor hardi- 
hood enough, to make the voice of his sor- 



5 THE LIFE OF MALEFHERBES. 

rows be heard, or to cry out against oppres- 
sion ! It is thus that, under the most equita- 
ble of kings, the injustice that fears to show 
itself openly is but too busy in secret/ 5 

Malesherbes, after several observations 
that bore the stamp of genuine wisdom, 
declaimed with vehemence against the tribu- 
nals of exemption created by the king, 

H There are here" said he, " two heavy 
calamities: — on one hand, the general terror 
with which these irregular tribunals inspire 
the people ; on the other, the prodigious 
number of sanguinary executions performed 
under the mask of their authority. The 
necessity, say they, of destroying the con- 
traband trade was the cause of forming these 
redoubtable establishments! But why this 
disorder in the administration of justice. 
A tribunal sees itself deprived of almost all 
its numerous and salutary functions, at the 
simple dictate of a farmer-general! 



THE LIFE OF MALE5H ERBE3, V 

11 The most respectful complaints were 
laid, Sire, at the foot of your throne, with- 
out ils appearing that they were ever heard: 
this species of prohibition has already lasted 
more than seven years, and, during so long 
an interval, an inferior judge has been au- 
thorised to execute the duties of a sovereign 
court, on the conditions, as it is alleged— 
of an appeal to your majesty's council ; as 
if most of the affairs which interest the 
farmer of your customs were of such con- 
sequence to the oppressed, as to induce them 
to come from the farthest part of a remote 
province, and deliver their complaints in 
the capital !" 

Had all who are placed near kings called 
on them with similar energy to hear the 
language of truth, they might still be seated 
in tranquillity upon the throne, and France 
might have escaped the storms by which 
she has been desolated. 



10 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES-. 

The greater number of our revolutionary 
statesmen were despots under a free govern- 
ment; Malesherbes, on the contrary, was 
free beneath a despotism: to every new abuse 
of power, to every growing evil, he opposed 
the courage and steadiness of a virtuous 
man. In proportion, however, as he exerted 
himself against the multiplicity of taxes, the 
court created others more burdensome: in 
1759, an edict decreed the collection of a 
general subsidy; but the ministers, foresee- 
ing the opposition which the Court of Aids 
would not fail to give to its being registered, 
took the resolution of obtaining by force 
what they could not hope for from compli- 
ance. Accordingly the Count de Clermont, 
a prince of the blood, presented himself, on 
the 22d of September, at ah extraordinary 
general assembly which had been summoned : 
he was followed by a numerous guard, and 
accompanied by the Marechal deBerchigny. 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 11 

After causing the king's ordars to be read, 
lie laid the edict, of which he was the bearer, 
on the table, and enjoined the court to re- 
gister the same upon the spot, and even 
before its contents were examined. The 
answer which Males he jibes, as president 
addressed to him, is a model of magnanimity: 
it ended with these memorable expressions: 
— " Thus, commands, the execution of 
which is entrusted to us, are on the point 
of being deposited amongst our records, 
and stamped with the last seal of regal au- 
thority, before we can know what they are, 
or foresee to what abuses they may lead. 
We shall proceed, Sir, to hear these notable 
laws: may they contradict the alarming 
opinion of them which has arisen in our 
minds from the mode of their transmission 
to us ; and may we, after witnessing their 
publication, not be reduced to return thanks 
to the royal clemency which dispenses with 



12 THE LIFE OF M ALESHER BES. 

our free concurrence to their being enrolled! 
It is a melancholy circumstance for the 
court, and, I dare to add — it is such also 
for princes of the blood, that the king never 
sends (hern forth but to deliver the severest 
mandates, and that in the midst of that joy 
which their presence should communicate, 
may be perceived unequivocal testimonies 
of public consternation/' 

All this resistance could not prevent the 
renewing of arbitrary measures: in 1763, 
the Prince of Conde was charged with a 
project similar to the last ; and Maleshekbes 
did not mingle less courage or less dignity 
in the answer he addressed to him. " The 
orders, Sir, which you have announced go 
to suspend the activity of the laws; and the 
only persons invested with the privilege of 
causing the just complaints of the people to 
be heard, are nearly reduced to silence and 
passive obedience. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 13 

i; Bat ought the king to fear — ought he 
not rather to desire the discussion of ques- 
tions so interesting! Will not the necessary 
effect of discussion be to show him those 
truths which they are so urgent to conceal 
from him? The truth must be something 
very formidable indeed, since they, with so 
much vehemence, obstruct its approach to 
the throne." 

It was in this manner that Maleshekbes 
expressed himself before the first prince of 
the blood, and in the midst of a military 
array calculated to intimidate any man who 
had not an elevated mind and singular firm- 
ness of character. 

The pretended lovers of liberty in our 
days, who have echoed the words patriotism, 
and equality — have they opposed the same 
resistance to the various kinds of tyranny 
under which we have groaned? No — they 
were always low and grovelling before power, 

B 



14 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

however sordid the form in which it dwelt; 
nor had they ever courage except to smite 
the innocent and defenceless, and to appro- 
priate to themselves the spoils of their 
victims. 

If Malesherbes, as a public character, 
has established his claim to the applause of 
future generations, he is no less entitled, as 
the father of a family, to the esteem of man- 
kind. 

He was plain in his dress and manner of 
living, and disliked those grand entertain- 
ments and dinners of ceremony, where the 
majority of persons in power waste the time 
they should devote to their duties. He 
often passed whole nights without sleeping; 
and in his latter years, lay down with half 
his clothes on, that he might be the sooner 
ready for business when he rose. 

During a winter of uncommon severity, he 
was once found at four o'clock in the morn- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 15 

ing at his desk; his legs bare, and without 
any garment on except his shirt: after un- 
dressing, his head being engaged by some 
weighty plan, he wished to write down a 
thought which had occurred to him: and, 
drawn on by the fervour of composition, con- 
tinued writing for more than three hours, in- 
sensible to the cold. 

He never repulsed the unfortunate who 
applied to hi in ; but condoled with them, en- 
couraged them, and wag prodigal of all the 
assistance in bis power. He had so excellent 
a heart, that he was more than once the dupe 
of his benevolence: his fortune, however, 
could not keep pace with his liberality, and 
he stipulated with his steward to allow him 
only a certain sum monthly. One day that 
he came to receive it, he learned that a large* 
family was suddenly reduced to the utmost 
poverty : he instantly allotted them all his 
money, and stole himself away from the 



16 THE LIFE OF MALESHfcRBES. 

benedictions of the unfortunate beings to 
whom he had given new life ! The next day 
he went to demand a like sum from his man 
of business, who took the freedom to expos- 
tulate with him for his extravagance: Males- 
hbrbes humbly replied, " Why, what would 
you have me do? — and they so wretched V 9 

His conversation was of the gayest kind ; 
and he told a story with a degree of felicity 
and ease peculiarly his own. Amongst the 
anecdotes which he loved to relate, the fol- 
lowing will doubtless appear sufficiently sin- 
gular: it is extracted from a sketch of this 
e'lAihefit man's life, published in the year 4. 
(1796.) 

He often mentioned that he was born on 
the day Cartouche (a famous robber and mur- 
derer) was put to death, and entertained 
himself by recalling that strange coinci- 
dence; but in his early years he had been 
deeply affected by a circumstance which 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 17 

made a most lively impression on his young 
heart; he had seen in the country, at a 
friend's house, the father of Cartouche, who, 
under a borrowed name, acted as a servant. 
Malesuerbes used to describe, with all his 
eloquence, the miserable parent overwhelmed 
with shame and sorrow, and preserving, for 
several years, silence the most profound, 
uninterrupted even when alone, except by 
religious hymns and heavy sighs. Males- 
herb es, then ignorant of the cause of his 
affliction, in vain employed every method 
suggested to him by his address, his vivacity, 
and the spirit of inquiry which belongs to 
youth, to effect the discovery; they who 
were intrusted with the unfortunate man's 
secret, remaining faithful to their words: at 
last he perceived the anxiety of Males- 
herbes, to whom he had never spoken, and, 
drawing near him, said, " I am the father of 
Cartouche" — And, covering his eyes with his 

b3 



18 THE LIFE OF MALESIIERBES. 

bands, retired — the tears streaming down 
his face. Malesherbes wept, and made 
others weep in describing this affecting 
scene. 

As a public character, he was never, per- 
haps, more eloquent or more courageous 
than on two particular occasions, which pre- 
sented themselves nearly at the same time; 
when he had to contend with some vile 
beings countenanced by protectors still more 
despicable. All France was then over-run 
by a tribe of clerks issuing from the Exche- 
quer office, whose arrogance was equal to 
their folly, and who had crept from the anti- 
chamber of the venal prostitute into the 
splendid apartments of the Financier. 

Some of these had exercised the most vex- 
atious oppressions in the vicinity of Mantes: 
**ot content with plundering the poor la- 
bourers, they also loaded them with fetters; 
and desolation and dismay had reached their 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 19 

utmost height in that unfortunate district. 
The Court of Aids, which, through its organ 
Malesherbes, had in vain made so many 
remonstrances against these abuses, shewed 
itself inexorable, when informed of the above- 
mentioned exactions. Commissaries were 
named to go into those parts, and obtain 
evidence of the facts: a mass of depositions, 
one worse than another, was collected; and 
a criminal process, commenced in due form, 
was likely to do justice on the heads of the 
guilty; when, though the matter was en- 
tirely beneath its attention, the crown in- 
terfered. 

One of the accused was cousin to the wait- 
ing maid of a favourite mistress ; the other 
had been servant to a farmer-general: there 
needed nothing more to paralyse the arm of 
the law, and arrest the steps of justice. 

They succeeded in procuring an order 
from the king, enjoining the Court of Aids 



20 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

not to pay any attention to these informations 
insinuating that they rested on vague ru- 
mours of abuses said to be committed, none 
of which were specified. 

This insult offered to a sovereign tribunal, 
with a view to save a few obscure malefac- 
tors created the most painful sensations in the 
public mind. The members of the Court of 
Aids conceived that they owed it to themselves 
and to the sacred title of violated majesty, 
to cry aloud against euch an abuse of autho- 
rity; and it was Malesherbes whom they 
deputed to deliver to the king a verbal 
statement of their mournful apprehensions. 

The style in which he performed his mis- 
sion will, no doubt, astonish a certain set of 
men, who, born with the Revolution, have 
become firmly persuaded that magistrates 
under the old form of government never ad- 
dressed themselves to kings but in the lan- 
guage of base and servile adulation. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 21 

Thus did Malesherbes express himself 
on that occasion: — "It is requisite for the 
king to know that the proceedings which he 
has ordered to be suspended, were entered 
upon merely to defend those who are unfor- 
tunately liable to taxation : that simple pea- 
sants never possess either the means or the 
boldness of themselves to seek redress against 
persons infinitely more powerful than they 
are, and that they must remain defenceless 
unless justice come to their aid: they who 
have besought the assistance of the king's 
ministers against this prosecution could only 
dread the severity of a tribunal from the 
testimony of their own conscience, and, in 
daring to complain, their alarm proves that 
they feel themselves criminal. 

" To stop the prosecution of extortioners, 
is but to assure them, that protected by an 
individual (who is himself subject to error 
and to prejudice), they may attempt every 



22 THE LIFE OF MALESH£rb£S. 

thing with impunity, and reduce even the 
laws to silence! Already have new abases 
been committed, revenge has been satiated, 
and menaces put in force; and is it when 
these horrors are brought to light, that the 
course of justice is to be impeded? 

" That the king should, by granting a 
pardon, preserve the lives of the guilty, is 
the legitimate exercise of his royal authority : 
but to suspend a prosecution is to anticipate 
a pardon, which, in almost every ease, can- 
not fail to produce effects the most pernici- 
ous: in short, to stop a legal proceeding 
before trial, is to intercept the voice of truth ; 
and, in an affair like the present, to smother 
the cries of an injured people ? 

" To say that the king will himself be an* 
swerable for this process, is to say that his 
majesty will commit the affair to a minister* 
who will undertake to give some account of 
it through the medium of another, and this 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES , 23 

one by a third. The fact is, that they have 
prevailed on the king to command a suspen- 
sion of the proceeding — not because his ma- 
jesty will take cognizance of it himself (for 
that is impossible) but that it may be placed 
to the account of the ministers or others, 
whose sentence will be the more arbitrary, 
in as much as they will not be responsible 
for a decision protected by the name and 
semblance of supreme authority. 

" We dare to tell the king, that perhaps 
the greatest of all abuses is to lavish his pre- 
rogative, and condescend to bring his name 
into question with objects beneath it; and 
this in order to rescue from justice persons 
accused! And of what description? men 
of an inferior class, who are not acquainted 
with, and therefore never can execute the 
orders of the king. — But these are orders 
which, on the contrary, his majesty never 
heard of, and for issuing which they would 



24 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBE8. 

not have demanded his protection, had they 
not themselves been the criminal authors of 



jy 



them. 

These animated representations were with- 
out effect. They contented themselves with 
obliging the accused to change their place of 
abode; and another province became the 
theatre of their extortions. 

Malesherbes, however, had not the less 
performed his duty; and supported by his 
own conscience, and the public voice, he, 
in silence, bewailed those ills which he could 
not prevent. 

The ardent friend of his country, and a 
zealous supporter of the monarchy, he dis- 
dained to mingle in the impure crowd of 
courtiers: he would neither prostrate him* 
self to beg a smile or a favour from a pa- 
tron, nor become the servile echo of men in 
power, or the contemptible instrument of 
their pleasures; but earnestly sought to con- 



THE L.IFE OF MALESHERBES 2 J 

duct into the right path a monarch whose 
eyes were dazzled by the lustre of his crown. 
He humbly hoped to give strength to his 
authority, by rendering it just and respect- 
able; and laboured for the honour and hap- 
piness of his king, by displaying to him 
those acts of injustice which were likely to 
alienate the hearts of his subjects, and even 
incline them to revolt from his sway. The 
indefatigable vigilance of the Court of Aids 
gave the highest displeasure to ministers, 
controllers, and all concerned in the revenue 
departments; for the robber must ever dread 
the sentinel and the lamp! 

Every species of machination was em- 
ployed to destroy, in the public opinion, 
those magistrates who attempted to restrain 
the rapacity of the Exchequer. A man 
named Varenne, secretary to the states of 
Burgundy, published a sort of libel against 
them, written with the most malignant bit- 

c 



26 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

terness; the printer's name was omitted, and 
it had been put to press without permission ; 
it nevertheless experienced such a circula- 
tion, that it might be suspected to have the 
countenance of government, if not by open 
avowal, at least by its silence. This work 
caused at the time a considerable alarm; it 
was denounced to the parliament, who con- 
demned it to be burnt at the foot of the gal- 
lows by the common executioner, as inso- 
lent, seditious, and contrary to the respect 
due to the person of his majesty, and the 
dignity of his courts. Besides this, a per- 
sonal citation was directed against Varenne; 
but his protectors made use of all imaginable 
dexterity to rescue him from the impending 
condemnation: to the summons issued for 
his appearance, he answered by a mandate 
from the king, commanding him to remain 
at Versailles on urgent affairs near the royal 
person, and not to absent himself on any 
pretext whatever. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 27 

The Court of Aids greatly embarrassed, 
but not willing absolutely to give up the 
pursuit of this business, embraced the ex- 
pedient prescribed in cases of sickness or 
legal confinement: a commissary was dis- 
patched to Versailles, and alighted at the 
inn where Varenne lodged, who, however, 
was not to be found, and was in vain waited 
for that entire day. The court then resolved 
to convict him of contumacy; but new dif- 
ficulties opposed themselves : witnesses were 
suborned, false attestations were fabricated, 
and Varenne was even complimented with 
the ribbon of the order of St, Michael. 

Indecency had attained its utmost extent, 
when the Court of Aids, overturning every 
thing which obstructed its progress, decreed 
the arrest of the accused and his accom- 
plices, and prosecuted the suit with the 
greatest alacrity; but, at the moment when 
all was nearly completed, the king granted 
c 2 



%$ THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

letters of indemnity. Varenne, in conse- 
quence, presented himself before the Court 
of Aids, on his knees and bare-headed, 1o 
hear the letters read; and Malesiierbes ad- 
dressed him. from the bench, in these words a 
" The king grants you letters of pardon; the 
court confirms them — Begone — your punishment 
is remitted — but your guilt remains. 

His answer to the Duke de Chartres, 
who, in 1768, came forcibly to register a new 
tax, deserves to be recorded. 

u A ceremony the most imposing and the 
most formidable has already told us the 
orders which you come to execute. The peo- 
ple groan beneath the burden of redoubled 
taxes ; and, after many years of peace, find- 
ing them still increasing, they have lost even 
a hope of ever seeing an end to their miseries. 
Henry the Great, from whom you are de- 
scended, has left upon the records of this so- 
ciety some valuable memorials, which prove 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 2£ 

how remote his inclination always was from 
such acts of authority as are put in force at 
this day: permit us to remind you of the 
words of that great monarch — ' Measures 
which are carried by compulsion and violence 
must be iniquitous/ " 

It was at this period that the virtuous 
chancellor Lamoignon, his father, was dis- 
graced, and his place supplied by Maupou, 
who then had the audacity to conceive the 
project of erecting his authority, on the ruins 
of magistracy. 

Lamoignon was too upright to become the 
instrument of such an outrage; he therefore 
retired, at a very advanced age; carrying 
with him into his retreat, the esteem of all 
good men, and the regrets of every magis 
trate in France. 

The disgrace of this irreproachable minis- 
ter unluckily proved detrimental to the re- 
public of letters. The same year in wbich 
c3 



SO THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

M&lesherbes, his son, became first president 
of the Court of Aids, he had received from 
him the superintendency of the press; an 
office, in some degree, annexed to that of 
chancellor, but which was taken from him 
as soon asMAUPOu had succeeded his father. 
This office was perfectly calculated to fet- 
ter the freedom of the mind, and to restrain 
the promulgation of certain bold truths: ty- 
rants cannot endure the liberty of the press: 
they resemble the ape in the fable, who broke 
the mirror that reflected his deformity. 

Malesherbes allowed, and even encou- 
raged, the publication of useful truths; and 
far from being like those minute censors, who 
take a barbarous pleasure in extending their 
power, he burdened himself with a painful 
employment, from a desire to temper its seve- 
rity : this situation, besides, gave him access 
to the ingenious, and to men of letters, 
amongst whom he reckoned many of his 
friends. 



THE LIFE OF MALtSHERBES. 31 

The dry study of the law had not prevented 
his cultivating polite literature: he was ex- 
ceedingly well informed, and intimate with 
everv ancient and modern classic author : 
Horace, Virgil, Ovid, amongst the Latins ; 

CORNEILLE, RaCINE, La*ONTAINE, MoLlERE, 

and Voltaire, amongst the French,were most 
familiar to him. He spoke of them with en- 
thusiasm ; loved to quote passages from their 
writings, and alwas accompanied these with 
remarks full of propriety and acuteness. He 
had been made member of the Academy of 
Sciences in 1750; and of " Inscriptions and 
Belles-lettres" in 1759. He also belonged to 
the society of agriculture; and it will appear 
that he was not like those honorary members, 
who are inscribed on their lists only to em- 
bellish them with pompous names, and fas- 
tidious titles. 

Under the direction of Malesherbes, the 
press enjoyed all the freedom it could have 



32 THE LIFE OF MALESMERBES. 

in a monarchical government: the charges of 
the bishops, and the thunders of the Sorbonne, 
could not prevent the publication of works 
of merit, which have enlarged the bounds of 
human knowledge ; and which, but for him, 
would, perhaps, never have seen the light. But 
in proportion as he encouraged the modest 
author, who dedicates his labours toenlighten 
and instruct the age, so did he shew himself 
severe towards the class of licentious writers, 
whose effusions breathe contagion, and taint 
the public morals! 

To his care and benevolent exertions 
France is indebted for the Encyclopedia; 
the works of Rousseau, and many other 
productions, which he sheltered from pro- 
scription. Voltaire, writes thus, the 4th of 
October, 1773, to M. D'Argental. " M. De 
Malesherbes has rendered infinite service 
to human genius, in giving greater liberty 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 33 

to the press than it ever had before — we are 
already more than half Englishmen." 

In fact the literary world in him found a 
friend and father: if he w r as compelled to 
offer an opinion contrary to their's, it was 
always conveyed in the most courteous ex- 
pressions, and the most persuasive tone. He 
united in himself to much of every sort of 
knowledge as enabled him to converse with 
each, on what each knew best : he was equally 
at his ease with the poet and the pleader; 
and no one ever left him without being 
charmed by his affability and politeness. 
He used all the artifice of a scrupulous deli- 
cacy in offering assistance to those whose 
necessities he suspected, and pretended to ac- 
commodate them with money"granted by the 
state, whilst the expenditure was entirely his 
own. How many families might be mention- 
ed, who are, at this day, happy by means of 
his benefactions! how many pages might be 



34 THE LIFE OF M AL.ESHERBE5*- 

consecrated to the recital of his generousacts, 
had he not so perpetually performed them in 
secret ! 

His courage and unconquerable firmness 
raised up powerful enemies against him; and 
even persons of the highest consequence 
wished to overwhelm him by their influence, 
but feared to strike the meditated blow; his 
acknowledged and matchless virtues still 
protecting him. 

One day, a severe complaint was brought 
to the chancellor of a historical work which 
appeared with approbation and privilege, 
and which contained, as was averred, some 
principles highly reprehensible .\ he sent for 
Malesherbes, his son, and seriously re- 
proached him for publishing a work of such 
a nature, and choosing an injudicious cen- 
sor*: he also endeavoured to suppress the 

* Or Reviewer; a person appointed to examine writings 
before they weie. published. 



THE LIFE OF M ALESIIEIt BES. 35 

book, and to punish him who had been so 
heedless as to give his approbation to it. 
Malesh cubes defended the author with all 
possible earnestness, and respectfully repre- 
sented to his father that the charge was un- 
founded: he analyzed the work and the sen- 
timents of the historian in the most interest- 
ing passages, reminded the chancellor of the 
general merit and precision of the censor he 
had selected, and proposed to him to stop 
the sale of the work for some days, send a 
copy to five different censors, whom his fa- 
ther should name, and order them to report, 
without delay, such passages as appeared to 
them fit to be suppressed : to this the chan- 
cellor consented ; the five censors, who could 
not concert together, because each was ig- 
norant that the other had the work in hand, 
quickly gave in their report ; but, on com- 
paring the parts criticised, not one was found 
to which all, or even a majority of them, 



OO THE LIFE OF M ALESIIERBES, 

objected: the passages indicated were differ- 
ent, and the number not the same, in any 
one report! Profound silence and consider- 
able confusion formed the only answer to 
this striking lesson on the injustice and in- 
utility of the censor's office: The work sold 
rapidly, and no more was said against it. 

Though, at the time of his father's dis- 
grace, Malesuerbes ceased to have the di- 
rection of the press, he employed himself in 
devising means for disengaging it from those 
numberless restraints by which its efforts 
were impeded : he even drew up a statement 
of the case, very finely written, and display- 
ing a most sagacious view of that important 
question. Probably this essay has, in com- 
mon with so many others, fallen a prey to 
the revolutionary Vandals ; and its loss is the 
more to be regretted, as it might have thrown 
some light on a subject, which, since the 
Revolution, has given rise to much debate 
in the lettered world. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. St 

Several learned men who had conversed 
with him on the point, assert that Males- 
herbes had laid it down as one of his prin- 
ciples, that despotism alone could fear the 
liberty of the press, when circumscribed 
within the limits marked out by sound poli- 
cy, and the respect which is due to the laws. 
The chancellor Maupou re-established the 
censorship, with all its inquisitorial formal- 
ities, but the books thereby prohibited did 
not circulate the less; they were printed in 
obscure quarters, and contributed, by a 
smuggled trade, to enrich the bookseller. 
The printing-presses of Holland and Flan- 
ders were supposed to issue them; and the 
police was obliged to maintain an army of 
agents in order to hinder the circulation of 
works which, had they not been prohibited, 
would never have been perused. The resig- 
nation of Malesherbes threw all the friends 
of literature into despair, for in him they 

D 



38 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

lost a most enlightened and liberal protector. 
J. J. Rousseau, whom he had always treated 
with distinction, and who would not have 
been a misanthrope, had all men in power 
resembled Malesherbes, addressed the fol- 
lowing letter to him. — " On learning your 
resignation, I sighed for literature; but I 
congratulate you : while you cease to be offi- 
cially at its head, you will still remain there 
by virtue of your talents: by means of these 
you can delight your mind, and decorate 
your asylum. Given up to literary pleasures, 
you are no longer compelled to witness the 
misfortunes of the learned; you may now 
cultivate philosophy more at your ease, and 
your heart will have less to suffer." 

It was, indeed, observed, that Males- 
herbes always filled those places which were 
most repugnant to his principles and general 
way of thinking: his situation as superin- 
tendant of the press obliged him sometimes 



¥he life of malesherbes. 39 

to wound the feelings of men who were dear 
to him : " but, said he, " I am rather the 
counsellor than the censor of writers, and 
am scarcely sorry to do my duty strictly, 
when I reflect how much evil might be per- 
petrated by an unjust or intemperate man in 
my place/' 

As president of the Court of Aids, he had 
still more to endure: being, in some degree, 
compelled to sanction the rapacity of the 
Exchequer, and the oppression of the people* 
But his courage seemed to increase with his 
difficulties; he disputed the ground inch by 
inch with his opponents, and forced them to 
drive him to his last intrenchments before he 
would yield. Involved in duties as perilous 
as they were honourable, he performed them 
with additional energy, fearless of the tem- 
pests which threatened his repose. Day 
after day, he presented to every new en- 
croachment of authority new obstacles, and 
»2 



40 THE LIFE OF MALESHERCES. 

made the powerful voice of truth reach the 
throne. 

His venerable father, whose extreme age 
and eminent services could not protect him 
from the hatred of his enemies, had been ex- 
iled after his dismission. When, at length, 
he was permitted to appear again, the Court 
of Aids hastened to congratulate him on his 
return ; and Choart, the president, addressed 
him in these terms : 

" Sir, 

" Impressed with the liveliest sen- 
timents, we approach you to testify the plea- 
sure we feel in again seeing you after so long 
an absence: the more distressing to us from 
the proofs we have had of your sincere 
attachment to our interests, both as presid- 
ing over us, and over the laws. In the midst 
of our concern, there remained tons, how- 
ever, one source of consolation; and this we 



ftfE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 41 

found in the noble person who sits at our 
head : your other self — he is the image of 
your virtues." 

Malesherbes was one in the number of 
those deputed on this occasion, and could 
not refrain from tears, on seeing once more 
his parent loaded with years and honours, 
and from whom he was proud of having re- 
ceived the gift of life. The chancellor Mau- 
pou was far from deserving a similar eulo- 
gium : in conjunction with the famous Abbe 
Terray, whose calamitous administration 
completed the derangement of the finances, 
he every day offered fresh insult to the mem- 
bers of the judicature, and even no longer 
dissembled the plan he had formed for their 
ruin. An affair, the particulars of which are 
horrible, accelerated the period of their de- 
struction. 

A man of the name of Guillaume Monnerat 
tvas # arrested in his own house by the agents f 

1)3 



42 THE LIFE OF MALESIiERBES. 

the farmer-general, after a"lettre de cachet" 
had been taken out against him for smug- 
gling tobacco. Committed to the Bicetre, 
and thrown amongst the vilest criminals, he 
experienced such persecutions as would not 
have been inflicted on malefactors condemned 
to the rack: he was flung into a deep and 
noisome dungeon, where the sun's rays had 
never penetrated, and a chain weighing fifty 
pounds, and attached to the wall of the hi- 
deous cavern, was fastened to his neck. 
Having thus suffered for six weeks, and be- 
ing at the point of death, he was removed to 
another prison, where he remained for seven- 
teen months longer. 

On being restored to liberty, he devoted 
his first moments of freedom to the task of 
proving his innocence ; and the farmers-ge- 
neral themselves were obliged to acknow- 
ledge, that it was not for him the " lettre de 
cachet" had been intended, and that a simi- 
larity of names had caused the mistake ! 



THE LIFE OF M ALES HERB CS. 45 

Towards repairing so barbarous an error, 
it might be presumed that the least which 
the farmers-general could do was to indem- 
nify the unfortunate Monnerat: they could 
not, indeed, purchase at too high a price the 
suppression of a transaction which, if spread 
abroad, must excite the public indignation 
against them; — but — can it be believed? — - 
Monnerat was compelled personally to im- 
plore a trifling sum, and they were so infa- 
mous, or rather so stupid, as to refuse him! 
Monnerat then applied to the Court of 
Aids; where, after a full examination of the 
facts, the farmers-general were sentenced to 
make a formal recantation, and pay fifty 
thousand livres damages, with interest. 

Marieres and Laroche, directors of the 
excise on tobacco, were, over and above, 
cited to appear before the court, and their 
prosecution was decreed in due form. 

Monnerat had nothing in his favour, save 



4t THE LIFE OF MALESHERBEfr. 

his misfortunes and his innocence; the 
Court of Aids possessed no power, except 
what courage bestows, and the farmers-gene- 
ral were opulent; thus they obtained a tri- 
umph — Monnerat was sacrificed, and the 
court silenced. 

On the report of the Abbe Tkrray*,. 
whose every movement was influenced by 
the spirit of taxation, the king reversed the 
decree of the Court of Aids, and forbid its 
proceeding any farther in the suit : the court 
did not, however, discontinue its exertions 
until commanded by a new edict to drop 

* It was he who first reduced property to one half of its 
▼alue: a fraudulent bankrupt who pays fifty percent, to his 
creditors, would have made as good a controller- general. 
The Abbe Terra Y had agents worthy of him; his secre- 
tary wrote, on a common card, reports of the greatest 
moment: oh these our Abbe just threw his eyes, and whirl- 
ing himself round, passed sentence upon the fortunes of the 
citizen. He used to say, " I never read these packets they 
hand in to me : the odour of them is quite sufficient, and I 
know the nature of any busineis by smelling to it/' 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 45 

the prosecution, on pain of being totally sup- 
pressed. 

When we reflect on such odious conduct 
as this, we naturally devote to the execration 
of future times those infamous ministers, 
who have intercepted the cries of innocence 
oppressed, and immolated to their boundless 
rapacity and sordid avarice the inalienable 
rights of justice and humanity. 

These are they who have produced the 
most dreadful, the most deplorable of revo- 
lutions: their names deserve to be placed 
first on the records of assassination, and the 
blood of their guiltless victims should stain 
their hated memories! 

Malesherbes in vain endeavoured to spare 
ministers the scandal of the above affair: 
and even wrote a letter to M. de Maupou, 
the most remarkable passages of which we 
shall here set down. 



46 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBfiS. 

Paris, July 28, 1770. 

My Lord* 

<c I know how dangerous it is for a 

first president to discuss, in his own name, 

such matters as concern the king's authority; 
but, in the present state of affairs, that 

danger is no longer a consideration which 
shall restrain me. I can be silent no more: 
and must begin by calling you to witness 
this fact, that the affair in question could 
never have taken place, but that the council 
chose it should : I spoke of it to the con- 
troller-general, when I thought it was going 
forward in the Exchequer, that is, before 
the decrees of the council were signified ; 
and, since that, 1 had the honour to speak 
of it to yourself, because 1 knew that it had 
already come before you. You may recollect, 
my Lord, that the day on which the second 
decree was communicated to us, I presented 
myself at your door, at the moment you 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES 47 

were setting out for the country : I insisted 
on seeing you; the request was made to your- 
self, and you refused me*. 

" You nevertheless, knew that I must 
have had something of consequence to say, 
because it was upon thai day the decree was 
announced, which menaced the Court of Aid& 
with a prohibition. Anxious to render the 
business less serious, I went the length (and 
perhaps, in so doing, exceeded my duty) of 
proposing to the accused themselves to take 
some steps, that, without interfering with 
the authority of council, might abate the ac- 
tivity of the Court of Aids ; and they re- 
jected the idea with a degree of insolence, 
which, considering who it was that came for- 
ward, the creatures of a farmer-general 



* At the same time that M. de Malesherbes waited in the 
antichamber of Maupou, the farmer-general Mazieres, 
then under a criminal prosecution, arrived, was admitted* 
and spoke with the chancellor. 



48 THE LIFE OP MALESHEUBES. 

would never have assumed, unless ordered; 
and such an order could not have been issued, 
but by those who wished the affair to make 
a noise, 

" If the Government desires an opportu- 
nity of committing a flagrant act of autho- 
rity, I shall dare to telLyou, my Lord, that 
the time is very badly chosen ; for the foun- 
dation of the grievance — which they seem 
to have lost sight of, while they are dream- 
ing over ceremonials — is a great and most 
alarming vexation, which the Court of Aids 
is determined to oppose. 

*" I am aware, my Lord, that all I say (o 
you will have little effect; but in the hour 
when the society I belong to is threatened 
with annihilation, I should reproach myself, 
had I not communicated my thoughts to you 
with that freedom and veracity, to which I 
am impelled by the integrity of my senti- 
ments, and the purity of my conduct. 






TKtE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. -49 

46 I even confess to you, that I am much 
fonder of thus explaining myself on paper, 
than by word of mouth. A day will assu- 
redly come, when they will repent of having 
directed so deadly a blow against a court 
which deserved to be differently treated: and 
perhaps they would themselves upbraid the 
man who, placed at the head of the Court 
of Aids, had neglected making the necessary 
efforts for its preservation. 

" You will not take it amiss, my Lord, if 
I venture to consider this letter as one that 
will, at all times, be my justification in the 
eyes of the King, of the Court of Aids, and 
of every man of honour. I am, with pro- 
found respect, 5 ' &c. 

This letter, calm, cautious, and delicate, 
as it was, excited the anger of Maupou, who 
thenceforward vowed eternal hatred against 
M. de Malesherbes ; and, in order to sa- 

E 



M THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

tisfy it, conceived, shortly after, a scheme, 
the meanness of which fully corresponded 
with his general views. 

The Court was, at this time, at Com- 
piegne; the unfortunate Lewis XVI., then 
the dauphin, was obliged to be at Versailles, 
on the 31st of July, with all his attendants, 
and with the rest of, the royal children: it 
was consequently impossible to procure post- 
horses on that road, and difficult even to hire 
them at Paris, they being all engaged for 
the journey of the princes and their house- 
holds. 

It was precisely this day that Maupou 
fixed on to summon to Compiegne, M. de 
Malesherbes, and thirty other members of 
the Court of Aids: and he took care that the 
order should not reach them until the even- 
ing before, that he might make it imprac- 
ticable for them to comply, and thereby in- 
crease the king's anger against the whole 






THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 51 

party. But Malesherbes defeated this pi- 
tiful project : he took on himself the pre- 
parations for the journey; applied to the 
purses of his friends ; by dint of money se- 
cured carriages and horses, and bore all the 
expense himself, lest some of his colleagues., 
not being able to arrive at the appointed 
hour, should experience the vengeance of the 
chancellor. 

The king received M. de Malesherbes, 
and the members, and, in a severe tone, ad* 
dressed them as follows : 

" The prohibitions notified by the decrees 
of my council, on the 25th of June and 15th 
of July last, have not prevented your fol- 
lowing up your decrees, which I had already 
set aside. 

" I forbid jou, once more, to proceed in 
this matter*: the first president, and two 

* The business of MoNNERAT. 
d2 



52 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 



others of the court will attend me, at mid* 
day, on Friday the 3d of August, to report to 
me its resolution upon the subject." 

Malesherbes accordingly appeared, and 
having acquainted the king that the Court 
of Aids found itself obliged to obey his 
orders, addressed some remonstrances to his 
majesty, and in these attacked, with great 
force, the system of oppression and exorbi- 
tance by which all France was wasted. It 
was in this discourse, an absolute manifesto 
against tyranny, that were contained the 
ensuing reflections on " lettres de cachet" 

" Those orders have so accumulated, that 
no citizen can be sure of not seeing his li- 
berty sacrificed to motives of personal ven- 
geance, for no one is great enough to be secure 
from the hatred of a minister, nor little enough 
not to merit that of a clerk" 

" When these orders (of which the king's 
subjects are the victims) emanate from the 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 53 

king's own will, it is to his justice only 
we must address ourselves; but when we 
know not by whose influence they have 
been procured, we must provide against the 
authors of an oppression exercised by virtue 
of a mandate wrested from his majesty. 
Did not this resource exist, where could the 
oppressed find a remedy ? The subjects of 
the king still possess a slight vestige of their 
ancient freedom, which these persons need not 
envy them. The discontent of a master has 
its limits, the vengeance of an ignoble enemy 
is boundless.'* 

" The mouths of such as complain of these 
"lettres de cachet" are stopped by the 
maxim — that the secrets of government 
must not be submitted to the inspection of 
tribunals: a maxim that merits notice when 
the question actually concerns the secrets of 
administration— but which is dreadful in 
its effects, when they would thence infer 

e3 



3't THE LIFE OF MALESHEEBE&, 

that there remains no appeal against similar 
orders issued by ministers. 

"If the persecutors of Monnerat are not 
punished, they will continue obtaining ille- 
gal orders, and will execute them : taking 
only greater precautions that the reason of 
their being procured may be concealed — 
and no one be responsible; they will again 
claim the privilege to shut up in dungeons 
those whom they may deem criminal; and 
the administration will take part with the 
officers of the revenue — to hinder the torch 
of justice from throwing light on what 
passes in those regions of obscurity. 

"At the present day, 'lettres de cachet* 
are considered indispensable every time that 
a citizen is wanting in respect towards a man 
of rank ; as if persons in power had not 
already advantages enough. 

"They also furnish the ordinary mode of 
punishment for indiscreet conversation, of 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES, 



55 



which there never can be any other proof 
than from information given — a proof always 
uncertain; for an informer is ever a suspicious 
evidence " 

The catastrophe so long foreseen at length 
overtook the Court of Aids in the month of 
April 1771. Already had a royal convoca- 
tion been held at Versailles in the preceding 
December, the result of which was the dis- 
solution of the parliament, and the banish- 
ment of its members. An irregular tribu- 
nal, composed of men sold to the court, was 
substituted for them; but the greater part of 
these not being yet at their post, the course 
of justice was interrupted, and crowds of 
unfortunate persons were left languishing in 
the prisons, waiting for the installation of 
Maupou's judges. 

The Court of Aids, which the thunderbolt 
of royal indignation had as yet spared, as- 
sembled at the summons of Maleshjbubes* 



56 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES, 

and commissioned him to present remon- 
strances to the king on the desperate condi- 
tion of the state: — the greater his danger 
was, the more fire and energy he displayed. 

14 Terror," said he, " has not shaken our 
firmness: it is notorious that all manner of 
access is denied to truth : our demand to be 
heard will doubtless expose us to the effects 
of powerful hatred — but our silence would 
insure our being accused by the whole na- 
tion of treason or cowardice. 

" The rights of that nation are those alone 
for which we this day contend: in other 
times, we should have told you that those of 
the magistracy were violated with every cir- 
cumstance of inhumanity; that the magis- 
trates themselves are dispersed over the king- 
dom by your orders, and, by an unexampled 
species of cruelty, care has been taken to 
select the most lonely districts, where, to 
aggravate their disgrace, all the convenien- 



THE LIFE OF M ALESH ERBES , 57 

cies, and even the necessaries of life were 
wanting. 

" These courts are now the last remaining 
protectors of the helpless and unfortunate; 
all the rest are reduced to mute and passive 
submission: no individual will dare to ex- 
pose himself to the anger of a commissary, 
or a commandant; much less to that of a 
minister. And, although we were not in- 
terested to fulfil our functions:— though we 
were deaf to the voice of duty, yet we can- 
not be so to the moans of a people suffering 
by the interruption of justice. 

" Cruelly must the rights of the nation 
have been invaded, and potent must the sen- 
timents of virtue and honour be in magis- 
trates who can thus lay themselves open to 
imprisonment, to exile, to the injuring of 
their fortunes, to the loss of health, and 
even to the loss of life, which has been the 



Ob THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

fate of many amongst those condemned to 
banishment. 

" By what fatality are they urged thus to 
force the men of France to remind their 
governor of those laws which Providence has 
imposed upon him, together with his crown ? 
Sire! You hold it from the Almighty — but 
do not refuse us the satisfaction of believing 
that you also owe your power to the volun- 
tary submission of your subjects: or rather 
— without agitating questions of this melan- 
choly nature, which should find no place 
under a reign such as yours, — deign to reflect 
that the divine power is the origin of all 
lawful dominion; but that the supreme 
happiness of the people should ever be its 
end and aim; and that God has put the dia- 
dem on the heads of kings, only to ensure to 
mankind security of existence, liberty of 
person, and the tranquil enjoyment of pro- 
perty. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 59 

" Sovereigns may have more or less power, 
but their duties are invariably the same: 
should there be any so unfortunate as to 
preside over a people destitute of laws, they 
are compelled to supply the place of these, 
as well as they can, by their personal love of 
justice, and a prudent choice of those in 
whom they deposite their authority. But — 
if there are laws — if the people look on them as 
the ramparts of their liberty — if they are really 
an useful restraint against the abuses of autho- 
rity — excuse our making it a question, Sire, whe- 
ther, in any state, a sovereign can dispense with 
such laws: is it enough for us to tell a prince who 
is the friend of justice, that he ought not. 

" It is given out that your majesty means 
to replace those members of the parliament 
who have refused to be the despicable tools 
of your ministers: we must be so bold as to 
assure you, Sire, that there will be found 
none to fill their room, but men who, in ac- 



60 THE LIFE OP MALESIIERBES. 

cepting that station, willow the sentence of 
their own dishonour: one part of them, from 
ambition, will he content to face the public 
odium; the rest will sacrifice themselves with 
regret, but be forced to it by indigence: the 
first, consequently, must be already corrupt— *• 
the others likely soon to become the same. 

4 - Such, Sire, are the judges you are about 
to give to your people ; and by such as these 
must be determined the fortunes — the repu- 
tations — the existence of Frenchmen! On 
the other side, the ministers, at their plea- 
sure, take away the properties and subsist- 
ence of the citizens — and their feelings as 
men of honour are all they have left — -for 
these cannot wither even beneath the blight of 
arbitrary power. " 

These expostulations only increased the 
fury of the ministers; and Maleshbrbes 
was banished to his country-seat, by a 
" lettre de cachet," dated the 8th of April. 



THE LIFE OF MALLSHERBES* 61 

lie soon after learned that the Duke de 
Richlieu, escorted by a large armed force, 
had come, in the name of the king, to dis- 
solve that valuable tribunal over which he 
had presided with such distinction. 

* The following is a letter which he wrote 
to one of his friends pn the subject of that 
event. 

April, \Mh, 1771. 

" It is true that the blow they have struck 
the Court of Aids, is one of the greatest 
misfortunes 1 could experience, I was pre- 
pared, since last year, for all that should 
happen merely to myself: you may recollect 
the decree of council, announced to us, 



*The Marechal de Richelieu, after the dissolution 
of the Court of Aids, wished, on going out, to take a rank 
to which he was not entitled : the president objected to this, 
and asked him for his orders: the Marechal answered 
that his orders were —his soldiers. — This was an argument 
which precluded any reply! 



62 



THE LIFE OP MALESHERBES. 



under penalty of an inhibition : it was mani- 
fest that they only sought for a quarrel, and 
offered that insult to drive us into some in- 
advertency, which would furnish them with 
a pretext to silence or dissolve us. 

"The chancellor and the Abbe Terra y 
acted then in conjunction ; it was plain that 
the chancellor desired, by making an exam- 
ple, to intimidate the parliament, with 
whom he was then beginning to embroil 
himself, or wished to try his strength against 
a less powerful party. No doubt, some 
controllers of the finances, or some receivers 
had an inclination to seize that opportunity 
of destroying a society which had always 
overlooked them too sharply. 

" Be it as it may, the scheme was so ini- 
quitous, that it was enough to expose it, in 
order to make it miscarry. To that end, it 
was only requisite for me to devote myself 
to the chancellor's malignity — and this I did: 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 63 

I wrote him a letter, and demonstrated to 
him, in terms the most precise, his own per* 
fidj throughout the whole affair ; I also told 
him, that I should one day make that letter 
public. Most probably they were afraid— 
for they settled the business at the time, and 
the project was not then effected: but I 
strongly suspected that they would seek 
other opportunities, and find them. Just 
at that period I had not any conversation 
with the chancellor: nor indeed since that, 
with him, or any other minister, on matters 
relating particulary to him. When I then 
perceived the eagerness with which they 
prevented the king's listening to me, I had 
no doubt that the day of vengeance was come. 
Perceiving its destruction resolved on, I took 
a step which I thought due to the society; 
and the event has but too fatally proved that 
my conjecture was right. 

" It occurred to me, that if one victim 
F2 



64 THE LIFE OF M AXESHERBES. 

were offered, it would suffice to hinder their 
going through with so desperate a measure 
as that of destroying the first Court of Aids 
in the kingdom. 1 saw with regret that our 
brethren would be left without resource, 
and find themselves deprived of their situ- 
ations and apart of their fortunes, which 
the majority could badly spare: for you must 
conceive, that their salaries, adjusted ac- 
cording to the caprice of the controller- 
general *, and the payment of which is not 
likely to be more exact than that of the royal 
monies, will lose, at least, three fourths of 
their value. 

" And on this they have induced the king 
to resolve, without the parties concerned 
being previously advised, or a single word 
in mitigation being permitted them. These 
reflections are useless, the facts speak for 
themselves. 

„■ — — 

♦The AbbkTEuaAY. 



THE LIFE OF tfALESHERBESr. 65 

" All I can tell you with respect to my- 
self is, that if the wish to destroy me has 
in any degree contributed to the misfortune 
of my colleagues, it is the greatest act of 
cruelty which the most barbarous spirit 
could advise. 

"A source of consolation to me is the hope 
that the only steps by which I could have 
provoked the government, are my letter of 
la^t year to the chancellor, and the remon- 
strances on the " lettres de cachet," and on 
the dissolution of the parliament. But my 
letter to the chancellor was necessary to pre- 
vent their executing against the*Court of 
Aids, in 1770, the vengeance they have since 
inflicted: and as to the remonstrances, it 
appears to me that they were delivered upon 
such occasions as call on w r hole bodies, as well 
as individuals, to sacrifice themselves for the 
good of the state. This testimony, which 
I can bear in my ovyn favour, is quite suffi- 



&> THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

dent to console me for my share of the mis- 
fortune, but is not enough for what I feel on 
account of my associates and my friends. 

" I am," &c. 

Malesherbes, withdrawn from the stage 
of public affairs, passed his days in serenity 
at his retirement; dividing his time between 
his family, his books, and the cultivation of 
his gardens. 

He had written a vast number of valuable 
remarks on the political condition of France, 
the administration of justice, upon agricul- 
ture, and # natural history. These observa- 
tions, which he designed to arrange, and 
which were afterwards carried off by the re- 
volutionary barbarians, breathed the spirit 
of an enlarged philanthropy, an enthusiastic 

love of his native land, and a lofty and va- 
lorous independence. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 67 

Every hour of his day was marked by be- 
nevolent actionsor useful discoveries. Rising 
before the dawn, he walked out to watch 
the progress of vegetation, and admire, in 
respectful silence, the ever-new and various 
wonders which nature pours forth with a 
lavish hand, for the benefit of human kind* 
He encouraged, by his example, the nu- 
merous labourers whom he employed in til- 
lage ; with the spade in his hand, lie even 
took delight in digging the ground himself; 
and never forsook his task, till, exhausted 
by fatigue, he would retire to repose himself 
under the shade of trees which his own 
hand had planted. 

His mansion was furnished in the most 
unostentatious style; for he found more 
pleasure in giving bread to a multitude of 
the poor, than in squandering immense sums 
on costly decorations. His place was laid 
out upon the principles of the old gothie 



68 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBESe 

manner; accordingly, people of taste advised 
him to throw all down, and rebuild upon a 
modern plan — but he had inherited the edi- 
fice ; all his ancestors had lived in it, and 
he preserved it as a family-piece; a sacred 
monument of his attachment and respect to 
his forefathers. 

His table was economically supplied, and 
his domestics few, although his annual ex- 
pense was considerable ; but his wealth was 
employed for the gratification and advantage 
of his dependents: canals carefully formed, 
meadows reclaimed, marshes drained, the 
roads in his neighbourhood skilfully made, 
dykes opposed to the violence of the tor- 
rent, umbrageous walks, and picturesque 
plantations, were the objects on which 
Malesherbes expended his income. 

To facilitate the communication with dif- 
ferent parts of the country, he constructed 
several bridges of solid masonry: the travel* 



THE LIFE OF M ALESIIEHBES. 69 

ler, too, shared his benevolence; a shady 
walk near the high-road protected him from 
the fervor of the sun ; and for the repose of 
the humble foot-passenger, commodious 
benches were at hand, while a fountain of 
pure water flowed to appease his thirst. He 
also contrived means to lighten the fatigues 
of the weaker and more amiable sex ; and 
built convenient sheds on the borders of the 
river, where the cares of domestic industry 
obliged the women of the village to remain 
exposed during the most rigorous seasons. 

Owing to this, the inhabitants loved him 
as a parent, and under his influence every 
one enjoyed a degree of respectable ease: 
the children received instruction, the aged 
were held in honour; and the peasant who 
had cultivated his fields with most care, and 
managed his flocks or herds to the greatest 
advantage, obtained a premium, which gave 



70 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

birth to a virtuous emulation, and tended 
highly to the improvement of agriculture. 

Malesherbes derived his chief pleasure 
from the pursuit of natural history, and had 
acquired most extensive knowledge in that 
science: he wrote some very curious obser- 
vations on the larch-tree, and the mahaleb, or 
wood of St. Lucia; he also composed a trea- 
tise on pines, and another on the varieties of 
the orchis, &c. 

He planted in his grounds at Malesherbes, 
a quantity of exotics; these he had even 
familiarized to the climate, and multiplied 
them to such a degree, that, in straying 
through his woods, one might fancy himself 
transported into distant regions, where the 
acacia, the palm, and the trees of Palestine 
grow. High rocks, magnificent water-falls, 
and majestic pines, added still more to the 
illusion; forming a situation singularly pic- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES 71 

turesque, and a display of enchanting sce- 
nery. 

Whilst this venerable philosopher forgot, 
in the bosom of tranquillity, the shameful 
manoeuvres of court intrigue, the disgrace- 
ful traffic of corruption, and the arbitrary 
acts of despotic power, Lewis XV. wore out 
amongst his mistresses the remnant of a 
despicable life; and his perfidious counsellors 
continued, day after day, to dig still deeper 
that abyss which ere long was destined to 
ingulph the antique colossus of the monarchy. 

Lewis XVI ascended the throne amidst 
universal acclamations. This young prince, 
possessing a tender heart, a correct under- 
standing, and great integrity of character, 
was the object on which the nation rested 
all its hopes; and, beyond a doubt, he 
would have realized their warmest expecta- 
tions, had the wounds of the commonwealth 
been less deep — or had he joined, to the vir- 



72 THE LIFE OF MALESIIERBES. 

tues of a good citizen, the firmness of a 
statesman. 

His predecessor had left him many misfor- 
tunes to repair; corruption had attained its 
acme; the rights of justice were trampled 
under foot; France was encumbered with an 
enormous weight of debt, and exhausted by 
taxation, In short, calamities of almost 
every description overwhelmed this unfor- 
tunate country. 

Lewis XVI., by his first acts of authority, 
restored the nation to its hopes: — who could 
have imagined that the fair sunrise which 
marked the morning of his reign was to be 
followed by so long a night of disasters, and 
of woe! 

The young king hastened to give back to 
the people those magistrates who had been so 
scandalously taken from them; on the 10th 
November 1774, Malesherbes, in his re- 
treat, received an order commanding him 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 73 

to appear on the following day but one, in 
the place where the Court of Aids had for- 
merly sat. 

The Count d'ARTOis, attended by a great 
number of the princes and marshals of France, 
brought thither an edict from the king, re- 
establishing that tribunal in all its privileges; 
when Malesherbes pronounced the follow- 
ing reply: 

" My Lord, 

" The king has now before 
him a scene the most flattering for a power- 
ful monarch, and the most touching to a 
mind of sensibility : he hears the unbought, 
generous acclamations of an entire nation ; 
of that nation, whose gratitude has (if I 
may be allowed the expression) preceded 
the benevolence of his majesty, and whose 
wishes the king has answered by consulting 
them on the choice of his ministers. 

G 



74 THE LIFE OF MALESIIERBES. 

" Those striking proofs of the love of the 
French for their ruler, will remain for ever 
engraved on the king's heart, and cannot 
fail to dispel those deplorable jealousies, 
which make the misery of princes and people. 
■ If ever there should arise such turbulent 
spirits as can exist only in troublesome times: 
if they dare to utter those pernicious max- 
ims — that power is never sufficiently respect- 
ed, unless terror walk before her — that the 
administration ought to be a mystery hidden 
from the eyes of the people, because subjects 
have a perpetual tendency to disobedience ; 
and when they remonstrate, or when they 
supplicate, they but design to rebel; that 
authority has an interest in maintaining 
those who are in power, and those who abuse 
it: that the king's most faithful friends are 
objects of hatred to the people: — Then my 
Lord, without recurring to what passed in 
the happy days of St. Lewis, of Chahles V. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES 75 

of Lewis XII. or Henry IV. it will be 
enough for our king to recal what he has 
beheld in the earliest hour of his reign: and 
you, my Lord, who have witnessed this, and 
sit beside his throne, we trust, will inces- 
santly remind him with what solicitude, 
what sincerity, what an overflowing heart, 
the whole nation has acknowledged her 
young monarch: this, France expects from 
you, and from all who, like you, are dear 
to the king, and interested in his prosperity. 
" Whilst all his moments are dedicated to 
the weighty cares of government, and whilst 
perhaps, no mode of seduction will be left 
untried to hinder truths from reaching hirn, 
it must be you who will collect the wishes of 
the people, will be their faithful interpreter 
and preserve between them and the king 
that uninterrupted relation, that valuable 
intelligence, I shall venture to call it that 
familiarity, which at this instant constitutes 
g 2 



76 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

our happiness, and is absolutely necessary to 
that of the empire/' 

When the Count cTArtois had withdrawn, 
he addressed the following discourse to his 
colleagues: 

" Gentlemen, 

"Our ancient custom is to 

assemble annually, in order to repair the 
losses we may have sustained ; and recipro- 
cally to excite each other to the practice of 
the important duties of magistrates. 

" Respect bids us be silent on the misfor- 
tunes we have suffered: we must henceforth 
consider only the just and generous hand 
which has restored us to our functions; — but 
indeed what is that part of science of 
virtue to which it is necessary to exhort 
magistrates such as yon ! 

"There is one, Gentlemen, which is the 
foundation of all others, and which at pre- 
sent should form the leading motive of all 



THE LIFE OF M ALESIIERBES. 77 

your actions; and this is — The Love oi 
Public Good. 

" Let us not lose the valuable moment 
that ought to constitute the happiest period 
of the monarchy. A youthful king has as- 
cended the throne with a real love of truth, 
and endowed with courage to hearken to its 
voice — let us possess the courage to tell it 
to him. 

"Let us not think any obstacle insur- 
mountable; on the contrary, let us believe, 
that he who has rendered back to the people 
their legitimate judges, would scorn to con- 
fine their honourable zeal: justice is enthro- 
ned in the heart of Lewis, and the nation 
has every thing to hope. 

"In other times, our sole employment was 
the literal execution of positive laws ; and a 
strict observance of the laws is still our duty, 
as judges of the land: but — to day, when, 
in the presence of a royal legislator, w« 



78 THE LIFE Ol? MALESHERBES. 

plead the nation's cause, shall we carry our 
deference for the actually existing laws so 
far as to be afraid of declaring what abuses, 
what rigour, what injustice they contain? 
No, Gentlemen; you shall display a picture 
of the harshest features of the laws before 
the eyes of a king who has at heart the 
happiness of his subjects; and should the 
necessity which produced them forbid their 
abolition, at least reckon with confidence 
on receiving all the alleviation which we 
have a right to expect from enlightened hu- 
manity. 

46 Such, Gentlemen, are the mighty ob- 
jects \>hich w ill engage your attention in 
your particular assemblies; and no one here 
will disclaim the assertion, when 1 aver that 
you have pledged yourselves to this uider- 
taking in the view of the public; of that 
public which is the judge of magistrates and 
of ministers^ of whose suffrage there is no 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 79 

earthly power but might be ambitious: a 
public, let me be free to say it, Gentlemen, 
to whom, on this solemn day, we feel our- 
selves attached by new ties — the ties of gra- 
titude, 

"Gentlemen, the solemnity of this im* 
portant hour must not make us forget that 
we have tears to shed: I allude to that ma- 
gistrate* whom death has snatched from 
amongst us, and who was as dear to his 
associates for the charms of his conversation 
as he was useful in this tribunal for the rec- 
titude of his mind, and the purity of his 
virtues. 

"You all know what his fidelity was as a 
friend, his tenderness as a parent, his inte- 
grity as a citizen, his zeal as a magistrate: 
but — you may not know perhaps to what 



* M, Petit de Leudeville. 



80 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

extent his attachment to this society was 
carried in the last moments of his life : at- 
tended by Ins virtuous family, to whom he 
was inexpressibly dear — a wife in tears — a 
son, who was his fondest hope: his thoughts 
turned towards you —towards a society then 
dispersed, and lamenting beneath the cruel 
stroke which at one blow had annihilated the 
magistracy of France, still superior to pre- 
judice and unshaken amidst the calamities 
of the hour, he enjoined those who should 
survive him to request of you, as the great- 
est favour, that you would adopt his son. 
This last wish of an expiring father was 
conveyed to me in the retirement to which I 
was confined, in a letter written by the hand 
of his afflicted widow; nor could I avoid 
comparing him who dictated its contents to 
those illustrious republicans, that, in the 
most disastrous periods, conferred the palm 
of applause on him who did not despair of 
the salvation of his country. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 81 

" It occurs to me, Gentlemen, that this 
anecdote is not unworthy of being brought 
forward in so august an assembly." 

Then addressing himself to the advocates- 
general : 

" Gentlemen of the king's council If 

antiquity gave birth to those celebrated 
orators who are at this day our models, it 
w r as in those famous republics; where a plain 
citizen had a privilege of discussing the 
weightiest interests of the state in the pre- 
sence of the people. 

" Amongst us, to you alone belongs the 
enviable liberty of speaking to the people, 
and watching over the general welfare. long 
practised in this momentous duty, habitua- 
ted to prepare the oracles of justice, I onoured 
with the confidence of the public, whose 
protectors you are, the court expects every 
thing from your energy and your talents : it 
looks to you, particularly at this memorable 



82 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

crisis, for new exertions to unmask injustice, 
guide truth to a triumph, and aid the patrio- 
tic designs of a king, whose wish is to govern 
with equity: Orators of the bar — who have 
sacrificed to the delicacy of jour principles 
the dearest interests of mankind,* come 
forth, at length, from your venerable retreats 
where your powers have so long been lost, 
and receive from the hands of the public 
the only recompense suitable to your inte- 
grity. Come forward, you, who in the 
worst of times, were still the undaunted 
defenders of the citizen ; — you, whose pre- 
sence has more than once upheld justice, 
when nearly overpowered, and who, upon 
this fortunate day, enjoy the happiness to 



* During the suppression of the parliament and of the 
Court of Aids, the most distinguished advocates were pro- 
hibited from pleading. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 83 

see yourselves again united with your vir- 
tuous confederates, from whom your hearts 
were never estranged. 

"Magistrates — orators — citizens of every 
rank — oh never cease to remember, that the 
greatest act of treason against a country is to 
sow the seeds of intestine divisions; and that 
the greatest blessing a monarch can share — 
now so invaluable to his people — is to have 
appeared as a peace-maker in the temple of 
justice. 

"Let us consummate the work which has had 
so auspicious a beginning, and complete the 
confusion of the authors of public calamity, 
by discarding all animosity from our breasts, 
and, after the storms we have endured, ma- 
king the broad day of reason shine out. 
Let us forget our sufferings, pardon the 
weaknesses of others, sacrifice all our resent- 
ments, and allow ourselves only a noble 
emulation in promoting the general advan- 
tage." 



84 THE LIFE OP MALESHERBES. 

After this ingenious and affecting discourse 
Malesherbes moved a decree that the Court 
of Aids should return thanks to the kins: for 
having restored it to its rights, and was 
himself intrusted with that commission: he 
accordingly appeared at Versailles on the 
27th of November 1774, and addressed the 
king in these terms: 

" Sire, 

"The birth of jour reign has been 
distinguished by applauses ;-r-glowing testi- 
monies of your people's love, and of their 
hopes. They who have not before been ad- 
mitted to the foot of your throne, are this 
day empowered to speak the feelings of a 
happy nation. 

" Your reign, Sire, will be the reign of 
justice. Your immortal ancestors have held 
and supported, for eight hundred years, the 
first empire of the universe: after eight 
ages of conflicts and of glory, it is time to 



THE LIFE OF MALE3HERBES. 85 

enjoy prosperity and repose. The day is at 
length arrived when the enlightened amongst 
men know that those qualities entitled to 
human veneration are the milder virtues, 
and more particularly the virtue of justice; 
which indeed constitutes the real worth of 
a sovereign. 

"It was a legislator we required, and the 
earliest acts of your administration bid us 
recognise in your majesty him whom Provi- 
dence has designed for us. 

"Wise laws will produce purity of morals; 
will make the state powerful by giving hap- 
piness to individuals, and can alone render 
the prosperity of the people solid and per- 
manent; for the effects of that virtue by 
which wholesome laws are enacted cannot be 
transient. 

"As the organs of that law, we shall 
take the liberty of presenting to your ma- 
jesty the fruit of our labours and experience; 

H 



S6 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

nor will you refuse us the pride of contri- 
buting our share to the mighty reformation 
which, no doubt, your wisdom will think 
necessary. Happy, should our lives prove 
useful to a king — (permit us to repeat your 
own gracious expressions) — to a king who 
has restored us to a nation's wishes — and to 
a people — to whom we are indebted for the 
renewal of our sovereign's favour." 

Malesherbes had passed his word to tell 
truth to the king; and he lost no time ia 
making her accents audible. In a very 
ample memoir he laid before him the calami- 
tous condition of the kingdom ; and described 
in vivid characters, the afflictions of which 
it was the prey: pointing out to him those 
remedies by which alone France could be 
saved from absolute ruin. 

"It is necessary for you, Sire, (said he) to 
fly to the assistance of a people overburdened 
with taxation: it is our duty to exhibit to 



87 

you the hideous spectacle of the fairest king- 
dom of the earth crushed beneath a tyranny 
which, day after day, is gathering strength: 
the people, while they admire your good- 
ness, also implore its aid: but we, as the 
defenders of the people, invoke your justice: 
aware, that nearly every sentiment whereof 
the bosom of a king is susceptible — the 
thirst of fame — the love of laudable plea- 
sures—even friendship itself, and the desire 
of rendering happy those who approach 
him — are perpetual obstacles to that rigid 
justice which he owes to his subjects : for, it 
is at the expense of the people that a king is victo- 
rious over his enemies, splendid in his court, and 
generous to his favourites. 

"And if France — and perhaps all Europe 
be oppressed by a weight of taxes; if a mu- 
tual emulation amongst the powers have 
mutually involved them in such enormous 
expenses as to make those impositions ne- 
h2 



88 THE LIFE OF MALESHERB^S. 

cessary, and if these expenses are still more 
enlarged by an immense national debt — 
then you cannot but recollect that your an- 
cestors have attained celebrity at the cost of 
generations now in being — that they won 
all hearts by their liberality, and astonished 
the world by their grandeur — but that this 
liberality and this magnificence have created 
the taxes and the debts by which we are to- 
day overpowered. 

"Your majesty also cannot avoid con- 
stantly remembering the virtuous Lewis XII. 
who, notwithstanding his passion for war, 
never thought himself authorized to employ 
such means as might prove oppressive to the 
people, and that he had the courage to ex- 
pose himself to the reproaches of his cour- 
tiers for imputed avarice, because he knew 
that if parsimony in a king should be cen- 
sured by a few frivolous or rapacious persons, 
his prodigality would bring tears from the 
eyes of a nation. 



THE LIFE OP MALESHERBES, 



SO 



c; And while, Sire, that economy is de- 
manded from you by the united prayers of 
an entire people, they — who imagine a mo- 
narch's greatness to consist in the splendor 
of parade, are ever the persons who will 
crowd the steps of your throne: the lowly 
being — whose very food is wrested from him 
by taxation, never comes within your sight, 
whilst the objects of your favour and libera- 
lity stand continually before you. 

" We presume to hope that you will resolve 
on one act of justice, which shall do honour 
to your reign — namely, to investigate all 
those mandates whereby any citizens are at; 
present detained in exile or captivity. 

" From such an inquiry, this truth will 
arise, that orders unfriendly to tKe liberty 
of the citizen, ought never to be issued with 
a view to vindicate private wrongs, or gratify 
private interests. For in a country possess- 
ing laws, there is no need of extra-judicial 

h3 



VO THE LIFE 0* MALESHEREgS* 

mandates : Such orders are given to help the 
powerful against the weak, without recipro- 
city — an act of injustice, the greatest that 
can be conceived ! 

" There will not be wanting some who 
may say that there are cases wherein the 
public peace is concerned, which call for 
acts of authority not countenanced by the 
formalities of justice. They may also assert 
that it is sometimes requisite to quicken the 
slow pace of regular justice, which would 
allow the guilty to escape; and that, for the 
preservation of the police, and the safety of 
large towns, a power should be granted for 
securing persons legally suspected. But 
when, Sire, we shall have discussed these 
points in your presence, and laid before you 
the abuses which have been committed, your 
majesty will acknowledge that they form 
but very shallow arguments for giving up the 
liberties of the citizen, into the hands of 



THE LIFE O* MALESHERBES. 91 

arbitrary power; or at least that the op- 
pressed should still have reserved to them 
the privilege of complaining. If public 
order does require the arrest of a man legally 
suspected, the legality of the suspicion ought 
to be proved; so that he who has been the 
innocent victim of these political precautions 
may demand and obtain compensation; and 
be enabled to learn wherefore and by whom 
he has been injured. 

" We this day prefer a complaint against 
Despotism. You, Sire, will pardon our using 
the term, all odious as it is: you will dis- 
pense with the intricacies of circumlocution 5 
when we have truths to display. There are 
men, who have laboured to destroy the 
municipal spirit throughout France, and to 
extinguish even the sentiment of freedom: 
who have — if I may use such an expression 
—laid the whole nation under a prohibition, 
and placed her in a state of tutelage/' 



&2 THE LIFE OF MALESHEItBEi?, 

Malesherbes then attacked with energy, 
directors and deputies, and let fall the fol- 
lowing striking observations on ministers. 

" The interest of the minister is not always 
that of the sovereign; for example, when 
there k a design of subjecting the people to 
the will of the meanest agents of adminis- 
tration, under pretence of maintaining the 
supreme authority, or where the powers of 
government are extended to the most minute 
and trivial objects, the two interests are then 
widely different: For it is natural that an 
individual elevated to the rank of minister 
should be flattered by the smallest oppor- 
tunity of exercising his authority — that he 
should discover on> every side friends to pro- 
tected enemies to persecute ; and that his 
pride should banquet on the variety of 
incense offered to his greatness. 

"There must necessarily be," he added, 
" two parties in the state : on the on$ hand, 



THE LIFR OF MALESHERBE5. 93 

all those who are near the sovereign, on the 
other, all the rest of the nation. 

" Sire ! may the oppressed make you hear 
their voice ; on the day when you shall have 
granted them that valuable permission, they 
may aver that there is concluded a compact 
between the monarch and the nation, against 
ministers and magistrates: against ministers, 
should there be any amongst them perverse 
enough to wish truth concealed from you: 
against magistrates, should any of these be 
ambitious enough to affect the exclusive 
privilege of telling you what it is." 

We felt it a duty to give at large the pas- 
sages extracted from that memoir, because 
the sublime and hallowed principles it dis- 
plays, apply to every age and every country. 

If Malesherbes was worthy of telling 
truth to his king, Lewis XVI. was worthy 
of hearing its dictates: he was ambitious of 
being enlightened by the rays of genius and 



94t THE LIFE OF MALESHERBE5. 

virtue; and had summoned around his person 
such men as were best recommended by their 
talents and integrity: at length he threw his 
eyes on Malesherbes himself, and in the 
month of June 1775, appointed him minister 
of state. 

The news of his coming into office was the 
signal of public exultation: hopes revived in 
the hearts of the unhappy: the philosopher 
and man of letters, in his elevation, beheld 
the triumph of science and the arts ; the 
whole nation resounded with the liveliest 
expressions of satisfaction ; and the rapacious 
spoiler, the court sycophant, and the public 
extortioner, were they alone who took no 
share in the universal joy. 

His colleagues, over whom he had pre- 
sided for five-and-twenty years, could not 
see themselves separated from him without 
the most lively sentiments of regret; a loss 
©f such magnitude caused as much sorrow 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 95 

as that of a parent tenderly loved: but — 
Malesherbes had been the director of all 
their operations, had sustained their courage, 
and re animated their -energies during along 
and tempestuous career: they had beheld 
him unceasingly occupied with the impor- 
tant idea of public good, and gracing, by 
his virtues, the tribunal at whose head he 
was placed. 

When his resignation reached the Court 
of Aids, the members resolved to wait on 
him in a body, at his house, in order to ex- 
press the severe affliction which a separation 
so painful inspired. 

The senior president addressed him in the 
following speech: 

" Sir, 

" The members of the Court of Aids 
have not consulted their records on the sub- 
ject of paying you that respect which the 



96 THE LIFE OP MALESHERBEf. 

feelings of their hearts have dictated to every 
individual amongst them: they are too deep- 
ly affected with sorrow for their loss in you, 
and with gratitude for the many marks of 
regard and attachment you have evinced to- 
wards them, not to avow their sentiments, 
and assure you that they shall never be ef- 
faced from their minds. 

" They request permission to offer such a 
memorial of their esteem as shall descend 
to remotest posterity, and one which your 
modesty will allow you to accept: they wish 
not to present you a studied eulogium; for 
none can equal your merits: but they trust 
you will not refuse the homage of the heart, 
which you so well know how to appreciate. 

" The king has called you near his person ; 
you have taught him to hear the voice of 
truth, and her accents have decided his 
choice. We are confident that the air of 
contagion which you are going to breathe 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 97 

will make no impression upon a mind such 
as yours; and the nation, full of reliance 
upon a magistrate who has defended her 
rights with so much magnanimity, and a zeal 
so disinterested — feels persuaded that the 
language of truth will continue to flow as 
pure as ever from your lips." 

Malesherbes in vain attempted to reply; 
agitation and tears impeded his utterance; 
and he could only cast himself into the arms 
of his worthy and venerable associates. 

A scene so affecting as this is the more re- 
markable, as being so very uncommon. The 
number is exceedingly small of men in power 
who have carried with them into higher sta- 
tions, or into retirement, the regrets and ap- 
plauses of those whom they governed : while 
thousands might be counted whose retreat 
has been stigmatized by sentiments of dis- 
gust and public execration. 



98 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. ^ 

The reception of his successor, M. de 
Barentin, once more called forth the re- 
spect and admiration of his former col- 
leagues. The advocate-general thus ad- 
dressed the new first president: 
"Sir, 

" You have succeeded a very great 
man: but let not the glory of your pre- 
decessor — let not a name — calculated to 
awaken in every honourable breast the 
gentlest emotions, create in yours a senti- 
ment of fear; and let his virtues be to you 
but an object of emulation: universally 
known — universally admired — it was here, 
where best known, he was most beloved. 

"In public, we shared the honours he 
acquired; here we enjoyed his virtues: 
formed by his talents to be the oracle of our 
assemblies; he wished only to appear as one 
of ourselves. It is as the father of his coun- 
try that the king h$s demanded him: he 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 99 

may triumph in having found such a man; 
and we, in losing him, from the opportunity 
we once more have of saying to the public 
which hears us, — citizens of every rank — if 
the king willing, at this period, to choose a 
minister worthy of him, had assembled you 
all, and, surrounded by the awful multitude, 
had asked of you an enlightened and an 
honest man — whom, without hesitating, 
should you have named? I heal* your reply, 
and am persuaded, that at this moment 
these roofs do but echo the sentiment of 
France ! These are applauses that suit the 
man who modestly thought himself unde- 
serving of any, unless such as he might claim 
for having never despaired of the salvation 
of his country !" 

It is impossible to add any thing to thi& 

panegyric ; nor could all the embellishments 

of a laboured style, nor all the subtleties of 

oratory, present Malesherbes more clearly 

12 



100 THE LIFE O* MALESHERBE*, 

to our view, than this plain and forcible 
harangue. 

He was, however, now commencing a 
more brilliant career; but hkelevation could 
not corrupt his heart; nor could the lustre 
of his high rank exceed that of his virtues. 
He knew thoroughly well that the approaches 
to a throne are strewed with dangers; and that 
he was going to wander alone in a labyrinth 
of intrigues : but his fortitude taught him to 
despise the first, and his wisdom could con- 
duct him safely through the midst of the 
latter. 

Truth had long forsaken the court— he 
had the courage to recal her— to present her 
pure mirror to the great, and make them 
tremble at their own image: and, in this 
strife, should he be forced to yield to the 
attacks of calumny and envy, he was sure, 
in his altered fortunes, of the esteem of 
every generous mind, and of the consoling 



THE LIFE OP MALESHERBES. 101 

reflection that he had faithfully served his 
king and his country. 

Such were the motives which influenced 
Malesherbes, when he accepted the situ- 
ation of minister of state ; and it will 
presently appear that he did not, in a single 
instance, deviate from the path he had 
marked out for himself. 

He would not permit himself to be dazzled 
by the splendor of a court; and convinced 
that a minister does infinitely more honour 
to his name by a virtuous administration, 
than by a display of magnificence, he pre- 
served his customary simplicity of dress and 
manners. 

The fashion did not allow magistrates to 
retain the particular insignia of their func- 
tions, when once they became ministers: 
they were obliged, in lieu of their black coat 
and plain hat/ &c. to wear a bag-wig, and 
a sword. Malesherbes, who thought the 

i3 



102 THE LIFE OF MALES&EXIBEf. 

habit of a magistrate fully as respectable a* 
any other, and that to change it at his time 
of life would be in some degree ridiculous, 
adhered to his former simple dress. 

This circumstance, in itself unimportant, 
made, notwithstanding, a great deal of noise: 
the courtiers took it up seriously; for these 
gentlemen had a sovereign contempt for the 
" nobility of the robe" and, for a trifle, would 
have converted a black coat into an affair of 
state. 

One day Lamartiniere, first surgeon to the 
king, going to perform the duties of his 
office, met Malesherbes in the CEil-de- 
Bceuf*: they had both of them the same 
dress; a full suit of black, and the peruke 
worn by magistrates; Lamar tinier e<> coming 
up to Malesherbes^ tapped him on the 



* The Ox's eye ; an apartment of the palace- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 103 

shoulder, and said, " Good day, father" — 
"Good-day, brother/' replied Maleshekbes* 
smiling at being mistaken for a priest. 

Though deeply engaged in meditation, he 
always preserved a gaiety and readiness of 
repartee very rare in a statesman ; and was 
never known to repulse with harshness anv 
who came to seek justice or protection from 
him. 

He had nearly the same functions to per- 
form, as are, at this day, annexed to the 
office of " minister of the interior:'' his post, 
consequently gave him the power of encou- 
raging polite literature, agriculture, and all 
the useful arts. But the first wish of his 
heart was to hasten to the relief of the unfor- 
tunate, and to repair the ravages of arbitrary 
power: he therefore, obtained an exact 
statement of the situation of the prisons, 
and the number of the confined; and was 
not content with reports only, but resolved 



104 THE LIFE OF MALESHEREES* 

to judge for himself. On the 27th of August 
1775, he went to the castle of Vincennes, 
and interrogated the prisoners with the 
utmost tenderness: he assured the victims of 
authority that they should receive prompt 
and public justice; and treated, with the 
most consoling attentions, those whom 
weighty considerations, or reasons of state 
had deprived of their liberty. 

The promises of MALESHERBEswerequickly 
fulfilled: the prisons thronged under the Duke 
de la VaiLLiEREsoon enclosed none but com- 
mon malefactors, or persons otherwise dan- 
gerous to the interests of social life : all those 
who, by a long captivity had expiated some 
trivial indiscretion, unguarded remarks, or 
speeches perhaps a little too free were restored 
to society, and to their disconsolate families* 
Thus the name of Malesherbes was in every 
mouth; and all France, blessed both the 
sovereign who took counsel of a sage, and 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBE3. 105 

him who so amply justified the confidence 
of his prince. The report which Males- 
herbes, on this occasion, laid before the king 
affected him deeply: he could not refrain 
from tears on learning that a vast number of 
the imprisoned, worn out by cruel treatment, 
had actually lost their senses; and that 
others, from want of proper assistance, were 
a prey to the most deplorable infirmities: 
he thanked Malesherbes for affording their 
wretchedness all the alleviation in his power, 
and intrusted him with a considerable sum 
of money for their relief. 

Humanity was also indebted to Males- 
herbes for a reformation highly salutary and 
philanthropic. Those condemned to con- 
finement for theft, or other crimes, were 
crowded together in large apartments; and 
these beings, already corrupt, far from 
repenting of their errors, did but incite each 
other to the commission of new enormities, 



106 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

and transformed the prisons into regions of 
vice and profligacy. 

Malesherbes, willing to stay the progress 
of depravity, procured a greater number of 
rooms to be built, and the prisoners to be 
separated ; and, in order to rescue them from 
the dangers which ever follow in the train of 
idleness, he established amongst them the 
spinning of cotton, and other works, the 
produce of which was appropriated to their 
maintenance and support. 

It was not sufficient for him thus to have 
diminished the mass of general evils; he 
wished also to prevent their future growth. 
The " lettres de cachet" had been multiplied 
to an alarming degree under his predecessor: 
courtiers, farmers- general, favourites, all, 
even to the lowest clerk, obtained these 
with shameful facility ; these engines of des- 
potism were become anarticle of speculation, 
and the abundance of them having reduced 



THE LIFE OF MALESH ERBES. 10T 

their price, it was possible, for a very- 
trifling sum, to be delivered from the fear of 
an enemy, or the importunity of a creditor! 
The moment that principles are forsaken, 
a door is opened to the greatest abuses* 
"Lettresde cachet" were originally employed 
only on occasions of the last urgency: the 
king alone could make use of them; nor 
had he ever recourse to that pernicious extre- 
mity, but with the utmost circumspection; 
by degrees however, kings confided in their 
ministers; ministers in their controllers; 
these relied on their deputies; the deputies 
on their clerks, &c. And thus were intro- 
duced those calamities by which the people 
have been overwhelmed.. When once, un- 
fortunately, we make a single step beyond 
the boundary of established duty, we part 
from it by imperceptible gradations: its 
form fades upon our view — we wander bewil- 
dered, and can return no more. 



108 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

Had Maleshekbes consulted only his 
feelings, he would have annihilated an in- 
stitution which had its source in arbitrary 
power : but the more ancient abuses are, the 
greater dexterity is required to destroy them : 
in rending them asunder with too much vio- 
lence, there is danger of breaking to pieces 
the secret springs of government, and ex- 
posing the state to shocks, the effects of 
which are always doubtful. 

Innumerable precautions are requisite to 
produce reform; for measures the most in- 
iquitous, abuses the most vexatious, will 
still find persons to deprecate their removal, 
whose interest it is to persuade the ruler 
that designs are formed against his preroga- 
tive. 

The chief care which occupied Males- 
herbes, on coming into administration, was 
to collect around him virtuous coadjutors; 
to allot proper persons to his different of- 



TllE LIFE OF MALESHEIiBES. 109 

fices, and to shut the doors of these against 
such abandoned females as barter for gold 
the favours which cost them so little. 

M. Lemoine, counsellor to the Court of 
Aids, a man recommended by his abilities 
and worth, was placed at the head of all 
affairs connected with public disbursements: 
ancl M, Sen ac de Meilhax, heretofore con- 
troller of Valenciennes, was directed to draw 
up an account which should ascertain pre- 
cisely those very uncommon cases, wherein 
the support of order, and the safety of the 
state, could authorize the sovereign to lift 
himself above the forms of justice, with a 
view to deprive the citizen of liberty. 

Malesmbrbes, besides, declared to the 
king, in a manner the most impressive, that 
his principles forbade him to give his per- 
sonal acquiescence to any order of the na- 
ture alluded to; and he obtained authority 
to constitute a commission, composed of se- 

K 



110 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

veral enlightened and upright magistrates, 
to which all demands for " lettres de cachet" 
should be submitted ; and whose verdict 
should be unanimous, and grounded on mo- 
tives the most incontrovertible, 

This was the true method of demonstrat- 
ing the necessity of vesting in tribunals, so 
formidable a privilege, and of showing that 
the citizen could not, in any case, be de- 
prived of the legitimate judges appointed 
him by the laws and constitution of the 
state. 

He avowed, at the same time, that this 
commission, which he had composed of ir- 
reproachable men, could be but temporary; 
and, in fact, that declaration was the only 
security he could offer to the public; for 
men change, while institutions remain. 

This plan, in the hands of a corrupt mi^ 
nistry, might easily degenerate into a kind 
of star* chamber, or secret inquisition, which 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. Ill 

could not be looked on without horror. But 
the object of Malesherbes was to prove 
that nothing on earth was capable of sup- 
plying the place of laws; and that tyranny, 
under whatever form it may be disguised, is 
ever followed by injustice, by the indulgence 
of licentious passions, and b)^ every ill that 
can afflict the human race. 

Amongst the number of estimable men 
who had cause of complaint under the pre- 
ceding reign, none, perhaps, had suffered 
more than the unfortunate Lachatolais, 
president of the parliament of Bretagne. 
This excellent magistrate, having had the 
courage to resist the oppression of the Duke 
d'AiGuiLLON, saw himself torn from the 
embraces of his family, dragged from prison 
to prison, and stript of all his property. 
Malesherbes laid an account of his suffer- 
ings before the king, and procured him a 
sum of one hundred thousand livres, as a 
k 2 



112 THE LIFE OF M ALESHEItBES. 

compensation, and a pension of eight thou- 
sand more, to descend to his heirs. 

But, though ever ready to dry the tears 
of the afflieted, and fly to the succour of 
persecuted virtue, yet was he armed with 
inflexible severity against the profligate and 
depraved; and still repelled with disdain 
such men of rank as bring scandal on the 
public name by the licentioasness of their 
morals. 

The Count DuBARRr,surnamed "leRoue*" 
who was in the habit of supposing himself a 
person of consequence, because his wife had 
administered to the looser pleasures of the 
late monarch, retired, since the commence- 
ment of the new reign, into foreign parts, 
from a dread of suffering the just chastise- 
ment due to his matchless impudence, and 
adroitness as a sharper. But probably, not 

* Roue signifies " broken on the wheel/* 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 113 

finding, in the countries through which he 
strayed, as many easy dupes as in France, 
he wrote to Malesherbes, in November, 
1775, to gather from him what effect his re- 
turn would be likely to produce, and to re- 
quest he would tell him if it were advis- 
able for him to appear again in Paris. 

Malesherbes, indignant at such effron- 
tery, answered him dryly — that there ex- 
isted a perfect indifference respecting his 
person, that he was not a creature of import- 
ance sufficient to engage the public attention; 
and that in future he must address himself 
to the chief officer of the police^ that being 
the only magistrate under whose inspection 
he could properly be placed. 

During theadministrationof Malesherbes 
commerce was protected, the inland naviga- 
tion regulated; and agriculture, recently 
oppressed by taxes, received all the encou- 
ragement requisite to put it into a flourish- 
ing condition. 



Hi THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

But, above ail things, he loved to follow 
the impulse of his heart by promoting li- 
terature, Men of letters still remembered 
with gratitude the good offices he had done 
them, when he had the direction of the press. 
Become more powerful, he also became, if 
possible, more liberal, and exerted himself 
to make smooth the rough and thorny paths 
of learning: in short, he continued to prove 
himself what he had ever been, equitable and 
generous towards the humble and the op- 
pressed, and inexorable towards the oppres- 
sor. 

A person named Bausole had procured, 
July 26, 17T5, a representation, at the French 
theatre, of a tragedy in six acts, entitled " les 
Arsacides" which failed of success ; never- 
theless, the singularity of such a production 
attracted the public notice for several nights, 
but the players conceived that they were not 
bound to pay the author his share of the 



THE LIFE OF MALL'SHERBFJ-. 115 

profits. Bausole com plained to Maleshek- 
bes, who promised him speedy justice; and 
the actors having, shortly after, sent him a 
new piece for his license, M a-lesherbes 
answered them — I grant it to you, but on 
one condition, which is, that you shall pay, 
without farther hesitation, the money fairly 
due to Mt de Bausole, and that hereafter you 
show more regard than vou have done, to li- 
terary men, who deserve the respect of every 
thinking being, and are particularly worthy 

n y yy 

or your s. 

Soon after this, Malesherbes heard that 
a descendant of Cokneille was in want of 
the necessaries of life ; he hastened to do 
honour to the memory of a great man, by 
paying a visit to his niece; he spoke to her in 
terms of respect and tenderness ; immedi- 
ately obtained her a pension, and for the re- 
mainder of his life displayed towards her 
every mark of the most sincere and lively 
friendship. 



116 THE LIFE OF MAXESHERBES. 

Malesherbes, during his administra- 
tion, formed a strict intimacy withM. Tur- 
cot, who then held the place of con- 
troller-general of the revenue, and whose 
able conduct has gained him so celebrated 
a name: these two virtuous men were formed 
for one another ; the love of public good 
burned with a flame equally pure in the bo- 
soms of both; the same principles marked 
their political conduct, and a similarity of 
sentiments and talents united them together. 

Hence they mutually assisted each other 
in the cabinet, where they had to contend 
against a host of ancient prejudices, and 
established errors; and, above all, against 
the jealousy of the courtiers. 

The more popularity both the one and the 
other possessed, the greater was the number 
of enemies they made at court. M. Turgot 
especially, was on the worst possible terms 
with the financiers ; the new system of ad- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 117 

ministration, which he wished to introduce, 
met with every sort of opposition from them : 
money was dealt out in profusion, and in- 
surrections were fomented as if on account 
of the high price of provisions: in the end, 
yielding to the redoubled efforts of his an- 
tagonists, disgusted and calumniated, he 
was dismissed troin the ministry in the spring 
of the year 1776. 

Malesherbes himself had experienced 
the greatest mortifications. Owing to a 
barbarous custom, the Protestants who in- 
habited France, found themselves placed 
under a species of civil excommunication ; 
the law did not recognise the marriages they 
contracted, and their children were branded 
with illegitimacy. 

The interests of humanity, of commerce, 
and of sound policy, called loudly for the 
abolition of a principle so illiberal : accord- 
ingly Maleszterbes l«id before the council 



118 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

a report dictated by the wisest motives, and 
by the most enlightened spirit of toleration. 

But certain persons in power had sufficient 
credit to cause the rejection of this salutary 
design, which they took care to represent as 
an innovation of a dangerous tendency. 

Malesherbes, convinced how vain all his 
efforts were, did not desire any longer to re- 
tain a situation to which the confidence of 
his prince had called him : he dreaded lest 
his presence at the council-table should be 
considered as a kind of tacit approbation 
given by him to whatever measures were 
there adopted: he was in fact upon the point 
of retiring, when he learned the dismission 
of his friend M. Turgot, whose society 
alone had induced him to sustain the burden 
of government. He now, however, hesitated 
no more, but on the 12th of May 1776, re- 
signed his office to the king. 

On quitting the theatre of court intrigues, 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 119 

Maleshehbes panted to breathe again the 
pure air of rural life, and to enjoy the charms 
of retirement of which he had so long been 
deprived. 

With the keenest delight did he revisit 
his groves, his gardens, and his books! 
Once more agriculture and study engaged 
all his hours, and it was at this period he 
began several important works for the in- 
struction of mankind. 

He had long formed a design of travelling; 
and wished to see the manners and modes of 
government indifferent nations, and to col- 
lect every thing which should strike him as 
interesting in the paths of science and the 
arts. 

Bidding a tender farewell to his family, 
he commenced his journey in a style of the 
utmost simplicity, and travelled under the 
humble name of M. Gxjillaume. 

He visited successively various parts of 



120 THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 

France, Switzerland, and Holland, travel- 
ling always with the economy suitable to a 
man of letters: and inspected with attention 
manufactures, public works, curious me- 
chanism, and every thing that could afford 
him useful knowledge, or throw new light 
upon interesting subjects: he even travelled, 
for the most part, on foot, in order to view 
with more advantage such objects as deserved 
his particular notice; and by this method 
formed a large mass of valuable information. 
When the day drew towards a close, he 
sought for shelter in the nearest village, 
under the first rustic roof that offered, and 
there reduced into writing such observations 
as he had made during the morning. He 
wrote with ease; his style was, like his per- 
son, simple: what he saw, he described with 
clearness; and made it his constant aim to 
apply the reflections of his mind to the im- 
provement of various branches of industry 
in France. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. Ijfi 

He purposed to arrange the entire collec- 
tion of the notes he had made during his 
journies; but they are now, probably, lost 
to the world: they were carried off by the 
revolutionary committee, as proofs of aris- 
tocracy, and served to furnish matter for thfr 
accusation, or rather the murder, of one of 
the best of created beings. 

Inhuman monsters! could they not have 
abstained from the destruction of this ve- 
nerable old man? — But they had need of the 
gloom of ignorance for the establishment of 
their sanguinary domination: and to possess 
the lights of learning and probity, being a 
title to the hatred of these barbarians, 
Malesherbes, of necessity, became their 
earliest victim. 

On his travels, he was not satisfied with 
observing the productions of industry, and 
the wonders of nature; he also devoted his 
time to the study of mankind, and was tho- 

L 



122 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

roughly convinced, that in all countries, as 
in France, personal interest and cold self- 
love are the determining motives of human 
conduct. 

He every where found the great, proud, 
haughty, and hard-hearted towards their in- 
feriors; and saw sufficient cause to lament 
the corruption of the clergy, whom the 
world began to treat with contempt, because 
they no longer respected themselves. Th# 
plain dress of Malesherbes, and the lowly 
name he had assumed, gave him an oppor- 
tunity of observing many things which 
would have escaped him, had he travelled 
in sumptuous attire, and with a numerous 
train: men are ever the flatterers of opu- 
lence and power; either from a hope they 
entertain of reaping some advantage, or from 
the awe which a splendid title inspires; they 
are then sure to disguise their vicious pro- 
pensities under the varnish of politeness and 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 123 

adulation: but before an ordinary person, a 
common traveller, whom they consider their 
equal, or perhaps their inferior, they throw 
aside the mask of hypocrisy, and appear in 
their natural form. 

There occurred to Malesherbes, in the 
course of his journies, some adventures suf- 
ficiently curious to deserve a place in the 
history of his life. 

On his way to Switzerland, he stopped in 
a little town of Alsace, and sat down at a 
" table d'hote" with a friar of the order of St. 
Francis, a village-justice, and a knight of 
St. Lewis. The justice, who was a pro- 
digious reader of newspapers, talked politics 
unmercifully. The affair of the parliaments, 
and the dismission of M. Turgot, were, at 
first, the subjects of conversation ; at last, 
the military man, heated with the wine he 
had swallowed, opened loudly against the 
government; criticised with virulence all 
L2 



1S4 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

their operations, and accused the new mi- 
nisters of imbecility, ignorance, and even of 
corruption. 

Malesherbes, who till then had allowed 
them to vapour without molestation, now 
took part in the debate: he explained, with 
great gentleness, to the chevalier in what 
points his complaints were exaggerated; laid 
before him the difficulties and vexations ex- 
perienced by persons bearing the burden of 
administration ; and hinted to him, that, be* 
fore he condemned their conduct, it would 
be right to put himself for one moment in 
their place, and see if it were possible for 
them to act better than they did. 

The knight, unmoved by these sagacious 
observations, reprobated violently the re- 
moval of the late ministers — particularly 
M. de Malesherbes, the most virtuous — 
the wisest man in France. 

Malesherbes, embarrassed, did not im- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 125 

mediately know how to reply: " Sir," said 
he, " are you acquainted with him? 3> u No. 
— But, in what I say, I am only the echo of 
the whole nation — and I maintain it — that 
great minister has been dismissed, only be- 
cause he saw too clearly." — " Undeceive 
yourself, my dear Sir; if he withdrew, it 
was from a sense of his own insufficiency." — 
" Good heavens! are you an enemy of that 
admirable man?" — " No, indeed, I am not 
the enemy of Malesherbes; but I cannot 
endure to hear him praised above his merits/* 
The reverend cordelier, who had been, for 
lialf an hour, fast asleep, was roused by the 
din of argument: " Are you not speaking, 
cried he, of Malesherbes, that heretic, 
that profane one, who desired to overturn our 
holy religion, and substitute that of the Pro- 
testants? he is sent adrift — and so much the 
better!" The military gentleman, who had 
hitherto refrained with difficulty, here apos- 
l3 



126 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

trophized the holy man in \ery energetic 
terms: the justice in vain endeavoured to 
restore peace; already was a bottle levelled 
at the friar's rosy face, when Malesherbes, 
willing to terminate the dispute, interposed : 
" Stop, gentlemen, there is one sure method 
of bringing you to an agreement; you are 
both equally mistaken: I am Malesherbes.^ 
— At this name, tranquillity was re-esta- 
blished ; and thej 7 all respectfully stood un- 
covered before him. He addressed them: 
" You, chevalier, are in some degree wrong 
to pronounce so heedlessly on subjects of 
moment, and to praise a man at the expense 
of those who are entitled to your esteem and 
veneration: I thank you, however, for the 
good opinion you have expressed of me: but 
reflect, that it is prudent to wait, before you 
applaud a man in public station, until time 
shall have allowed you to form a judgment 
of his conduct* As for vou, reverend father, 



THE LIFE OF M ALHSHERBES. 127 

you have been misinformed: fanaticism, that 
poison of the mind, has perverted my inten- 
tions; and I consider it a duty to vindicate 
myself to you. When I proposed restoring 
to the Protestants their civil rights, I ful- 
filled a sacred obligation, and but antici- 
pated a measure, which sooner or later must 
be adopted. 

Yet, far from designing the smallest injury 
to our holy religion, 1 have on the contrary, 
done homage to its purity, by cherishing two 
of its leading precepts — toleration and the 
love of our neighbour. — Gentlemen, I wish 
you a pleasant journey/' — With these words 
Malesherbes retired, and left his auditory 
confounded at what had passed. 

At another time, in going to view a fort 
built by the Romans, he was caught in a 
tremendous storm, and endeavoured to re- 
gain the little village, where he had halted 
the evening before ; but, being obliged to 



128 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBEg. 

cross a wood of considerable extent, be mis- 
took the road, and went completely astray 
in a forest unknown to him: at last he made 
his way out of it; and, in a plain, discovered 
a village, towards which he directed his steps^ 
and reached it, wet to the skin. 

He there requested to be shown the par- 
sonage ; paid his compliments to the vicar, 
and begged a lodging for the night. " I am 
rather suspicious of your gentry who go 
astray," replied the doctor, with a very in- 
hospitable air. — "I have some such here 
every day, and am not quite fool enough to 
be their dupe: if, notwithstanding, you 
choose to pass the night in my barn, I shall 
go and have it opened for you: that is the 
only apartment 1 can give you/' 

Maleshekbes, who, unluckily, had neg- 
lected that day to supply himself with money, 
readily closed with the vicar's offer; he laid 
himself down on some fresh straw — and often 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 129 

declared that he never enjoyed a better 
night's rest. 

As soon as he beheld the first rays of the 
morning, he sallied from his bed-chamber; 
and, by asking questions, once more got 
back to the place where his carriage waited 
for him. 

Immediately on reaching the next post- 
town, he wrote the following letter to the 
clergyman who had received him with so 
much kindness: "M.de Lamoignon Males* 
herbes requests the vicar of # * * to accept 
his most sincere thanks for the shelter he was 
so obliging as to afford him. M. de Males- 
herbes will never forget the doctor's hospi- 
tality ; and, as a testimony of his gratitude, 
has asked the minister, who disposes of all 
ecclesiastical benefices, to bestow on him the 
first vacant canonry^ without a doubt r*f his 
demand being attended to/ 3 

Maleshirbes kept his word, and the 



ISO THE LIFE OF MALESHEItBES. 

pastor received the reward of a good action 
which he had not done! It must be admitted 
that this was, at once, a severe and a most 
noble rebuke. 

After travelling for several years, he felt 
strongly a wish to repose himself: — he re- 
turned to his country-seat, and, on finding 
himself once more amidst his family and his 
faithful dependants, he is said to have burst 
into tears! 

His old gardenertriumphantly showed him 
that the plantations had not suffered in his 
absence; and all the inhabitants of the vil- 
lage came forward to testify the joy w r hich 
the return of their benevolent landlord in- 
spired. 

Malesherbes then recommenced his dar- 
ling pursuits; and study, acts of humanity, 
and the advancement of agriculture, occupied 
his time. 

His travels had greatly added to his stores 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 131 

of information, and practical knowledge, in- 
somuch that he was often heard to lament 
his not having travelled before he became 
prime minister; for he thought, to govern 
men, it was necessary to know them well ; 
and that it was not in books alone where 
that abstruse and indispensable science 
could be found. 

The philosophic spirit had now made 
such advances, that Malesherbes was ena- 
bled to reconsider the civil situation of 
the Protestants, which, during his adminis- 
tration, he had vainly endeavoured to im- 
prove. He composed, with a view to this 
great question, two essays, which are speci- 
mens of acuteness and liberal inquiry; and 
which were both laid before the king. 

The first was a treatise, very ably executed, 
in which he completely refutes the prejudice 
that opposed the legality of Protestant mar- 
riages, and which drew all its force from the 



13t THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

authority of Lewis XIV. and the indolence 
of his successor. In this dissertation, which 
is characterized by the most enlightened 
principles of wisdom, Malesherbes demon- 
strates that it never was the intention of 
Lewis XIV. to reduce the French Protestants 
to their then existing condition ; that 
his primary object was, to modify their si- 
tuation by a law similar to the one he pro- 
posed ; and that the system of coercion in 
the clergy, w ho, at that period, ruled with 
despotic power, had alone detached him 
from his rational purpose. He explained, 
in a manner not less satisfactory, the inacti- 
vity of Lewis XV. respecting this part of 
the legislature: it proceeded, he says, to 
such excess, that the ministers no longer 
comprehended each other; and the monarch 
himself, instead of radically investigating 
the question, descended to the discussion of 
party feuds, and private disagreements. By 



THE LIFE OF MA LI-SHE Kf*!*S. 133 

reconciling facts with opinions, lie proved 
that Lewis XV. Cardinal de Fleuhy, the 
Chancellor D'Aguesseau, and all succeed- 
ing ministers, would infallibly have adopted 
the original design of Lfcwis XIV. had they 
not experienced a powerful opposition from 
the prevailing factions. 

This memoir is written with surprising 
clearness and simplicity: the author perpe- 
tually argues from incontrovertible positions, 
and thence deduces inferences in support of 
his proposal. 

Doubtless, in this conflict, philosophy and 
rhetoric could have supplied him with for* 
midable arms; but he disdained those re- 
fined expedients which are almost always 
used in the service of a feeble cause; and. 
preferred the dignified language of common 
sense, the unadulterated accents of truth f 
to the vain pomp and alluring glitter of elo- 
quence. 

M 



154 THE LIFE OF MAtESHERBES. 

He was, however, fully aware that he had 
to convince men highly prejudiced, and who 
were more likely to be decided by the opi- 
nion of Lewis XIV. than by that of the 
greatest authors and brightest philosophers; 
these being looked upon as the devisers of 
anarchy, as dangerous innovators, and the 
implacable enemies of religion and of kings. 

But yet Malesherbes, in attacking the 
superstitions of barbarism, expressed him- 
self with the respect due to institutions con- 
secrated by the lapse of time; convinced 
that, did he allow the sentiments which ani- 
mated his breast to explode in their fullest 
force, he should but multiply obstructions, 
and thereby retard the desirable reform he 
wished to produce. 

The other essay is written in a style no less 
persuasive. He lays it down as a fundamen- 
tal point, that the king should confess the 
justice and necessity of giving civil liberty 



THE LIFE OF M ALE8HERBES. 135 

to all his subjects, and acknowledge the uti- 
lity of attracting within the circle of his 
dominions such strangers as would import 
their commerce and their industry ; and thus 
vanquish the objections arising from their 
religious tenets. 

In urging this principle, he enquires, in 
his first chapter, whether, in order to put 
the king's subjects on a true footing, and 
secure the enjoyment of similar rights to 
those strangers who might desire to establish 
themselves in France, it were sufficient to 
let fall into oblivion the laws by which Pro- 
testant families were made illegitimate, and 
(to use a common phrase) wink at such as 
were not Catholics — or, whether the king 
ought not, at once, to determine their con- 
dition by an express statute? 

He declaims, with great spirit, against the 
power intrusted to tribunals of permitting 
those laws to slumber undisturbed, which 
m 2 



ISA T»H; TJjR OF 31 A L E5HEIIBES-. 

they may deem unjust dx cruel. " The sup- 
port of the supreme authority, and the safe- 
ty of the citizen, equally require/ 3 says he, 
" that judges should be but the interpreters 
of the law: tire national confidence is placed 
in the magistrates presiding over tribunals: 
— but not to the eminence of their station 
is this confidence owing; for the people are 
far from having the same reliance on persons 
of a rank the most exalted, when, as military 
men, they attempt to execute the orders of 
oppressive power: I shall go farther, and not 
hesitate to say, that neither is it due solely 
to their personal characters; because they 
often enter into the sanctuary of justice, ere 
the character has been proved, and while it 
is yet unknown to the public: but the peo- 
ple, in the persons of magistrates, view and 
venerate the law's immutable essence, of 
which they are only the organs. 

" Should a judge have the right to warp 



THE LIFE OP MALESHERBBS. 137 

the law according to circumstances, accord- 
ing to his private knowledge of particular 
facts, he will quickly be considered by the 
public as part of the executive government* 

'• The king, it has been said, has promised 
to soften this cruel edict: but — it is not the 
promise of the king, it is not the momen- 
tary caprice of his fancy; it is a positive law 
which should give security to the Protestants 
of the realm : for the citizen, whose thoughts 
centre not in himself, but who turns them 
on the interests of his family, ought to trem- 
ble for his children and his grandchildren ; 
doubtful, as he well may be, if the succes- 
sors of the king will entertain the same ideas 
with him; particularly on a subject where 
religion is supposed to be concerned, and 
where the clergy have been sometimes known 
to abuse the power their sacred character 
gives them over a pious sovereign. 

* What prince ever possessed more emi- 
m 3 



138 THE LIFE OF M ALESHEREES. 

nently the spirit of justice than Lewis XIV. : 
Under his reign every thing was done to make 
this virtue flourish — yet in this very reign 
was the sword of persecution unsheathed V 

Malesherbes then touches on the oath 
exacted from Protestants, previously to their 
exercising any public function; and takes 
occasion to offer some very just remarks upon 
the manner in which this solemn act was 
profaned. 

" If I am asked," he proceeds, ■" for an 
example of what I denominate the profana- 
tion of an oath, 1 shall cite that which is 
universally known — the oath required from 
a person accused, who is aware that, should 
he utter the truth, that truth will conduct 
him to the scaffold: but there are also many 
others equally absurd, and of course equally 
scandalous: at the town-hall of Paris they 
oblige them to swear, either on the gospel 
or the crucifix (I do not recollect which) 



THE LIFE OF M A L i;« a i; ;t y ■;<. 139 

that they will proceed fairly and conscienti- 
ously to the election of such a-* are most 
worthy to fill the municipal oi;ici>— and the 
identical persons who are u> be thus chosen 
upon oath, have been apposed Ion:* before ; 
have returned thanks for their nomination, 
and been openly congratulated! There is no 
one who will not say that this is indecency 
in the extreme — but none will propose the 
remedy: oaths are considered as empty for- 
malities; yet not only do^s religion prohibit 
this, but public order requires such a degree 
of respect to be paid to an oath, that he who 
has a scrupulous conscience should never^ 
without a holy tremor, raise his hand to take 
one; and that a man of any honour should 
reckon it a deed of the blackest infamy to 
have sworn to that of which he was not 
certain" 

These reflections are pointedly applicable 
to the present day : an oath is now regarded 



HO 



THE LIFK OF MALESH ERBES. 



far more lightly than it was when Males- 
herbes wrote; for it would be difficult to 
find, at this hour, any considerable number 
of persons in France, who have not been three 
or four times perjured ! 

Malesherbes having satisfactorily proved, 
in his first chapter, the necessity of an ex- 
press law on the subject before-mentioned, 
proposed the plan of it in his second. 

The substance of the proposal may be 
seen in the decrees issued by Henry the IV. 
and Lewis XIV. What he has added, was 
designed to render more efficacious the mea- 
sures taken by the former of these two kings, 
that the Protestants should no longer be, in 
any respect, a strange nation in the midst 
of the kingdom ; holding estates in common 
with others, yet having chieftains and judges 
distinct from those of their fellow-subjects. 

What he retrenched from the original con- 
sisted only of some resolutions made from a 



THE LIFE OF MALESIIER 3ES. 1 4rl 

hope entertained of a general and speedy 
conversion, at the period of the revocation 
of the edict of Nantes; but respecting which 
the government was undeceived towards the 
close of the reign of Lewis XIV. 

The exertions of Malesheiibes were not 
confined to this object alone: everything 
contributing to extend the influence of reli- 
gious toleration had a claim to his attention : 
he composed a very ample tract upon the 
illiberal treatment of the Jews; and perhaps 
more general knowledge or deeper erudition 
were never displayed on that subject. This 
work still exists in manuscript, and it is 
to be hoped his heirs will shortly give it to 
the world. 

He was employed in preparing for the 
press, an essay of still greater importance, 
when, in 1786, the king again invited him 
to his councils, without appointing him any 
particular office in the administration. 



142 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

The reins of government hung loose in 
the hands of a well-meaning but feeble mo- 
narch : the parliaments had once more set 
up the standard of opposition , day by day 
the national debt augmented ; in short, every 
thing announced the approach of a fatal 
crisis, when the ruling powers implored the 
long-required aid of Maleshekbes. 

The ministers, in calling him then to the 
cabinet, felt the propriety of sustaining 
their own measures by the interests of a man 
of spotless reputation, and of popularity to 
attract the nations confidence. But Males- 
herbes was too clear-sighted not to perceive 
the abyss into which they designed to plunge 
their country: he poured forth in council 
the most formidable opinions; opposed all 
the vigour of his intellect to the erroneous 
advice they gave the king, and replied to 
the fantastic schemes of ministers only by 
downright calculations, and stubborn facts* 



THE LIFE OF M ALESttERBES. 143 

Unfortunately his voice was not heard: 
his apprehensions they regarded as chimeri- 
cal, his projects as hazardous, and his sys- 
tem of administration as a good man's dream; 
they therefore counteracted his best efforts, 
and persuaded Lewis XVI. not to listen to 
him. 

Malesherbks, compelled to keep silence, 
could not behold, without terror, the cala- 
mities they were preparing for their native 
country. He determined to make One more 
experiment; and composed two memoirs on 
the state of affairs, in which, with a bold and 
steady hand, he rent asunder the veil that 
concealed them. 

It is here that the mighty views and in- 
corruptible honesty of the author are dis- 
cernible; he has here compressed, in the 
ablest manner, every striking historical inci- 
dent, and every idea which the mostprofound 
reason could suggest: a faithful picture of 



114 THE LIFE OF MA LESHE IX Hfi 

the ills he warned them to shun ; a frank and 
energetic defence of the respective rights 
and duties of king and people; the whole 
proclaiming the talents of a statesman. At 
this era, had his advice prevailed- — what 
benefits would have accrued! what woes 
would have been spared ! 

But the king* was blinded by perfidious 
counsellors; men destitute of experience, 
who had glided from the toilet of the wanton 
into the highest situations of the realm, could 
not endure to have their infirmities exposed: 
and Malesjiekbes— abhorred by the cour- 
tiers, the object of their malice and of their 
sarcasms, determined to quit for ever a court, 
to which, against his inclination, he had re- 
turned; and to pass the remnant of his days 
in the calm of solitude, and in the bosom of 
his family. 

The two memoirs, composed by Males- 
mbrbes before his final resignation, have 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHEItBES. 145 

suffered the fate of most of his other manu- 
script works, and been lost in the bloody 
vortex of the revolution. 

The friends of this eminent man, who 
knew what they contained, declared that 
they considered them as a perfect introduc- 
tion to a history of revolutionary transac- 
tions; they displayed an abundance of acute 
and philosophical observations, derived from 
experience, and from the histories of other 
countries; and exhibited the real situation 
of affairs and persons at the epoch of that 
memorable convulsion, which led the way to 
the establishment of the republic. 

Lewis XVI, was so egregiously preposses- 
sed, that he had not even read over these 
two essays: in vain did Maleskerbes, at dif- 
ferent times, supplicate him for the indul- 
gence of a private interview; he never could 
obtain one, and artifice at length succeeded 

N 



146 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

in estranging the most virtuous of counsel- 
lors from the weakest of kings. 

When at last the eyes of Lewis were 
opened, he examined the memoirs of Males- 
herbes, and perceived that he alone had dis- 
covered the true remedy for healing the 
wounds of the state: he then lamented not 
having listened to his admonitions — and, 
alas! late and ineffectual repentance! could 
not refrain from shedding tears at the re- 
trospect. 

In the recesses of his woods, the news of 
the Revolution reached Malesherbes, and 
he heard of the event without astonishment; 
he was even, for an instant, sanguine enough 
to hope that he should now witness the ex- 
tirpation of abuses : but he soon found that 
they reformed ancient institutions, only to 
fabricate establishments for new men and 
factious leaders, cursed with the ambition 
of becoming important; and fearless of the 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 147 

destruction they might bring on their coun- 
try, so they could, in the end, but seat them- 
selves upon her ruins. 

He, nevertheless, saw with concern, wise 
and moderate men foi'sake their public sta- 
tions at the moment when their assistance 
was most requisite. 

The vessel of the commonwealth, tossed 
by a merciless tempest, had none but the 
timid and inexperienced to guide her course: 
all men of acknowledged talents refused their 
aid, nor was it possible she could escape 
being lost amidst the perils of a stormy sea! 

They are our destroyers — has it often been 
said, those puny gentlemen, who, having been 
foremost in countenancing a change of affairs^ 
now, at their nightly revels, where they gather 
their opinions , declaim aloud against innovation; 
this is, however, but the waywardness of children 
— watch what the result will be! And indeed 
how frequently have we, with dejection and 
i2 



14$ THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

sorrow, beheld men, though called on by 
their education and their powers, disdain 
the higher offices of government, and aban- 
don them to beings as gross as they are 
uncultivated. 

Athiscaslle in the country, Malesherbes 
employed himself in writing a work on agri- 
culture, which he had long meditated, and at 
length published, in 1790, under the title of 
" An essay on the means of accelerating the pro- 
gress of rural economy in France." 

The author was always of opinion that the 
greatest obstacles to the progress of agricul- 
ture necessarily arose from this cause, that 
experiments were made by a variety of per- 
sons, different in talents, in character, and 
in their habits of life. 

He conceived it was only from the settled 
cultivator, from him who really improved 
the value of his farms, that solid and bene- 
ficial experiments could be expected : but 



THE LIFE OF MALESIIERBES. 149 

the mere farmer has rarely an idea of any 
thing except what he sees ; and should there 
happen to be one desirous of bringing his 
grounds to a state of perfection, he can only 
attempt this by imitating what he observes 
in his neighbour: books are of no use to 
persons of this class; they neither compre- 
hend nor confide in them. If there happened 
to be a man possessing an original spirit of 
research and emulation, which might tempt 
him to undertake something new, or hither- 
to unknown in his part of the country, the 
means are wanting; he has to seek for the 
model of some useful instrument, or for the 
peculiar kind of grain he wishes to grow; 
and admitting that the necessary expenses 
were not more than he was equal to bear, 
still he has neither correspondents nor con- 
nexions to procure him what he requires: 
and the consequence is, that cultivation can 
only proceed step by step, and very slowly. 
n3 



150 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

The author adduces many cases in point? 
and mentions two brothers of the name of 
Duhamel, whose intimate friend he was ; 
and whose example had, in some measure, 
indicated to him the remedy applicable to 
the evil he opposed. 

The elder, Duhamel de Denainvilliers, nerer 
quitted his country place, where he enjoyed 
happiness himself, and promoted that of all 
his neighbours. He was extremely assiduous, 
succeeded in all his projects, never gave an 
opinion till after the fairest trial, and saw 
distinctly what he viewed, because— says 
IWalesherbes, he saw without self-conceit 
and without prejudice. 

The younger, Duhamel Dumongeau, the 
author of several well-known works, en- 
dowed with equal worth, and the same zeal 
as the elder for the good of the human race, 
had yet a more ardent character than his 
brother; vigorous and enterprising, he could 



^7 



THE LIFE OF MALESHEIiBES. 151 

not remain perpetually in the country, though 
agriculture formed his favourite occupation. 
He found it desirable to range in a wider 
field, where the sciences might be advan- 
tageously pursued ; and he delighted in tra- 
velling. 

Alone, he did but make experiments in 
miniature, and would perhaps never have 
followed up any; because the implied suc- 
cess of one made him forget that, in order to 
pass on to another: or, what is more proba- 
ble, he would quite have forsaken agriculture 
for chemistry and experimental philosophy. 
But he lived a part of the year with his bro- 
ther, with whose enthusiasm and precision he 
was well acquainted : all the experiments he 
had collected, whether by means of specula- 
tions in natural philosophy, his own studies, 
his journies, or the letters of correspondents, 
were put in practice by the brother, who 
never left his fields, or the scene of his rural 



152 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

labours, but gave up to them all his appli- 
cation, not neglecting the smallest circum- 
stance, and afterwards reporting his proceed- 
ings to the other, who was a member of the 
academy. This and some other examples 
convinced Malesherbes that it would be 
fortunate if every resident improver of land 
had a friend established in the capital, or 
travelling through Europe, and known to 
the societies of the learned ; or that every 
philosopher, who wished to cultivate the 
ground, possessed an associate, who, never 
leaving the plough, would engage to make 
trial of his experiments. 

In this essay, he undertakes to show that 
it is not impossible to procure the above- 
mentioned advantage for the entire nation: 
he pre-supposes that in France there is neither 
a society of agriculture, an academy, nor a 
museum of natural history; and inquires 
what should be done, in order to create be- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 153 

tween the scientific in capital cities, and the 
resident improver, that degree of friendly 
communication, by which only the state of 
agriculture could be advanced. 

He suggested the establishment, at Paris, 
of an office of intelligence for the promotion 
of agriculture and the useful arts, to be su- 
perintended by such citizens as found their 
occupation and amusement in the various 
walks of natural philosophy and mathema- 
tics; of whom, some should direct their re- 
searches towards different arts and trades; 
and others, who could reside occasionally in 
the country, investigate, with attention and 
skill, the progress of rural industry. This 
office was to have been so constituted, that 
each farmer and artisan might have access 
to it. But as it was not possible for all the 
farmers in France to come to Paris for ad- 
vice, or write to obtain it, and, indeed, ab- 
surd to imagine they would have the wish to 



154 , THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES 

do so, the author proposed forming subordi- 
nate offices in thirty or forty chief districts: 
these to be connected with the great original 
establishment, and each of them to have a 
certain circle, in which correspondents 
should be placed, so distributed, that every 
farmer might find a corresponding member 
within four or five leagues of his residence. 

He details most fully the duties of the 
offices, and their correspondents; and mani- 
festly proves, by examples and facts, that 
they might render services of the highest 
importance to the interests of rural economy. 
That part of his work is particularly in- 
structive. 

He then proceeds to the manner of exe- 
cuting this benevolent scheme; and observes 
that the Agricultural Society, such as it was 
at that period, possessed in itself the ele- 
ments best adapted to the formation of the 
office he proposed; and that nothing more 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 155 

was wanting to its complete establishment 
than the members assuming the requisite 
functions. 

Such is the former part of this essay, which 
should be read entirely to give a just con- 
ception of the ingenuity it displays. 

In the remaining parts, the writer points 
out the duties to which he thinks the society 
of agriculture should attend, and thus make 
itself still more useful: he says, for example, 
that there are subjects respecting which, the 
truth cannot be collected from the experi- 
ments and observations of a solitary inquirer; 
that this requires the remarks of different 
persons combined, some of whom are not in 
the habit of committing their thoughts to 
the press. He therefore proposes, that the 
society, judging for itself of such separate 
observations on one subject as deserved no- 
tice, should be at the charge of publishing 
them: 



15(5 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

A trial of many years would be necessary 
to confirm the utility of making practical 
experiments in tillage. There are some 
which demand even a greater length of time ; 
such, for instance, as relate to planta- 
tions of trees; these ought to be examined 
at the end of five-and-twenty years, and 
again at the expiration of fifty. The suc- 
cess of a young plantation will not assist us 
to foresee how the trees may appear at the 
conclusion of a century: an improver rarely 
lives long enough to perceive the result of 
experiments on trees, and his property passes 
into the hands of others, who will probably 
only consider the wood with a view to what 
the timber will sell for. The author says it 
belongs to the society of agriculture, which 
cannot die, to inspect the consequence of ex- 
periments too tedious for the life of an in- 
dividual. He then advises that the society 
should send some of its members to ascertain, 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 157 

on the spot, the condition of the most flou- 
rishing plantations, which he mentions, in 
order that the committee might report, and 
deposit in the hands of the society, a circum- 
stantial narrative of their observations: 
twenty years after this, they should, accord- 
ing to him, return with their register of re- 
marks, and notice the alterations produced 
in that interval of time. 

In the conclusion, Malesherbes observes 
to the society how vitally essential it is to 
the progress of agriculture, that the actual 
state of its different classes should be known, 
as well as the average produce from the va- 
rious quarters of the country, and suggests 
the most direct and certain methods of ob- 
taining this knowledge. 

He himself offered to contribute his share 
to the works he wished the society to un- 
dertake : having made observations on the 
effects produced by the winters of 1788 and 

o 



158 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBE8, 

1789, upon foreign trees, and recollecting 
all he had learned for many years past by 
experiments on such as might be advantage- 
ously cultivated, he presented his remarks 
to some members of the society, and re- 
quested that they would endeavour to verify 
the facts advanced in his essays. 

" I have yet, 3 ' he says, t; some things to 
offer you on other subjects; but they must 
be extracted from the journals of my travels, 
which are not in the best order: nevertheless 
I shall arrange them at last, and that shall 
be the concluding labour of my pen/* He 
then proposes that the society should ascer- 
tain by commissioners the real state of his 
own plantations. These commissioners were 
appointed accordingly, and were the Citizens 
THouixand Tessier, celebrated naturalists; 
and Citizen Dubois, now prefect of the de- 
partment of Gard. But the events of the 
Revolution prevented their executing the 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBE3. 159 

honourable mission with which they were 
intrusted. 

Towards the end of this memoir, Males- 
herbes explains the reasons which opposed 
an earlier publication of the useful hints it 
contained : he infers that they could have 
produced no good effect; and dwells on the 
inutility of the efforts made by government, 
at the very time when they evinced the best 
intentions. He proceeds, "The people should 
have the fullest confidence in those who un- 
dertake to instruct them; and were well enti- 
tled to mistrust the persons to whom that task 
was atone time committed: when instruc- 
tion was designed for the people, it was con- 
veyed to them by such as were also charged 
with the execution of themost rigorous orders. 

" In most parts of France the citizens were 

not allowed the liberty of debating on the 

affairs of their own corporations. I was not 

ignorant of this defect in the ancient govern* 

02 



160 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

ment, for I then sat in the Court of Aids; 
and that court, without foreseeing the mighty 
revolution of the present day, incessantly 
demanded that all corporations should be re- 
stored to the most inalienable of their rights, 
that of regulating their own concerns: The 
court went so far as to say, " The nation 
had been put into leading- strings , and had tutors 
placed over her." But it was only through 
the medium of these false guardians that it 
was then allowable to speak to the people. 
Now, a new order of things prevails: we 
may now hope, that the people, represented 
in each district, and in the general assem- 
blies by those whom they consider worthy of 
their confidence, will no longer suspect that 
every act performed for their advantage con- 
ceals beneath it a plot against their freedom : 
no longer will the husbandman be obliged to 
secrete the produce of his industry, from a 
dread that the display of it would but add 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 161 

to bis load of taxation: no longer will the 
people regard the wise and the good, who 
would dedicate their talents to serve them, 
as the masked emissaries of a government un- 
der which they were used to tremble. This, 
then, is the moment to lay before adminis- 
tration a plan which could have had no suc- 
cess when first conceived." 

This passage sufficiently proves that, at 
the dawn of the Revolution, Malesherbes 
was not exempted from a share in the general 
intoxication; but the terrific events which 
ensued dispelled the delusion ; and he felt 
more convinced than ever of that eternal 
truth, that public good is the pretext em- 
ployed by the ambitious of every description, 
when their private interest is to begratified* 

Malesherbes, in bis solitude, heard the 
dreadful particulars of what happened dur- 
ing the months of June, August, and Sep. 
o3 



162 THE LIFE OF MALEiSHERBES. 

tember: — like the philosopher of old, h# 
folded himself in his mantle, and bemoaned 
the sufferings of his unfortunate country ! 

He had now attained the age of seventy 
years, and already saw approaching the ter- 
mination of a life every moment of which 
had been consecrated to the happiness of his 
fellow-creatures, when he was informed by 
the public prints that the National Conven- 
tion had passed a decree for the trial of 
Lewis XVI. 

The great soul of Malesherbes was 
deeply afflicted; he remembered all the vir- 
tues of a king distinguished for his love of 
mercy ; the best energies of his early years 
were awakened in his heart — and, depart- 
ing instantly for Paris, he wrote the fol- 
lowing letter to the president of the Na- 
tional Convention. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 163 

" Paris, December 11, 1792. 

" First year of the Republic. 
" Citizen President, 

"I know not if the National 
Convention will allow Lewis XVI. counsel 
to defend him, or whether he will be per- 
mitted to choose any ; if so, 1 desire Lewis 
may be informed, that, should he make 
choice of me for that office, I am ready to 
undertake it. 

" I do not ask you to disclose my proposal 
to the Convention; for I am far from think- 
ing myself a person of such importance as 
to attract its notice; but I was twice called 
to the councils of him who was my master, 
in times when that station was an object of 
ambition to all ; I owe him the same service 
when, in the opinion of many, the post is 
one of some danger, 

" Did I possess any possible method of 
acquainting him with my inclinations, I 



164 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

should not take the liberty of addressing 
myself to you, 

46 It occurs tome, that, from the situation 
you hold, you may have a better opportu- 
nity than any one else of giving him this in- 
formation. 

" 1 am, with respect/* &c. 

This letter deserves to occupy the first 
page in the annals of virtue; it should re- 
main an everlasting monument of courage, 
of modesty, and greatness of mind : nor can 
ancient or modern times afford a brighter 
instance of exalted generosity. Here we 
behold Maleshekbes, and history will in- 
scribe amidst its fairest records, this sublime 
act of a man of seventy, who, at the mo- 
ment when terror chilled the ardour of the 
bravest, steps forward to solicit, as the most 
signal favour, permission to defend a king, 
bereft of his crown, and treated as the lowest 
criminal. 



»HE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 165 

O perfidious and pusillanimous men — who 
cringed before his throne, and, unmoved, 
saw him mount the scaffold! peruse that 
letter of Malesherbes. — When that vene- 
rable old man taught monarchs the language 
of truth ; when courageously he denounced 
the oppressors of the people — you crawled 
obsequious; or, perhaps, yourselves increased 
the number of those extortioners, whom 
Malesherbes endeavoured to crush. 

But nature is not lavish in the production 
of such superior beings as this was, who, 
despising danger, and spurning at petty con- 
siderations, could sacrifice life to his sense 
of duty, and, without a murmur, devote 
himself to the poignard of assassins, that hp 
might rescue one victim from their grasp* 

Rome, amongst her oppressors, counted 
many tyrants as cruel as Nero — many cour- 
tiers as debauched as Antony — but she pre- 
sents us with only one solitary Curtius, 
plunging into the gulph to save his country! 



166 THE LIFE OF MALESHEREE?. 

Without looking back so far, let us turn 
over the blood-stained pages of our Revolu- 
tion, down to the 18th of Brumaire: shall 
we there find a single powerful villain who 
had not his flatterers? shall we not there be- 
hold the former courtiers of the unfortunate 
Lewis — caressing the infamous Robespierre? 
shall we not there view them passing from 
the levee of Touqiiier-Tainville, to the hall of 
the Executive Directory ? In short, shall we 
not find time-servers and tyrants on every 
side — and but one Malesherbes to relieve 
our terrified eyes ! 

Lewis had already appointed, as his coun- 
sel, Tronchet, Target, and Deseze, 
when the letter of Malesherbes was com- 
municated to him by the National Conven- 
tion: that ill-fated monarch was seen to 
weep on calling to mind his old and faithful 
servant; and Target, believing it his duty 
to refuse the defence of a king, Lewis im- 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 167 

mediately nominated in his place the man 
who had sought the office as a favour. 

On the 14th of December, Malesherbes 
was introduced at the Temple: the king, run- 
ning to meet him, threw his arms round him, 
and Malesherbes burst into tears. It is 
easy to conceive that the interview was most 
affecting* ! 

How poignant must have been the reflec- 
tions of this great and good old man, on dis- 
covering in a dismal prison the king, whom 
he had beheld seated on the proudest throne 
of the earth ; on recollecting, that, when 
last admitted to his councils, his will could 
have decided the fate of Europe! but that 
now he had come to try and rescue from the 
vilest death a prince who had but the other 
day governed twenty-four millions of men. 

Let us hear him speak for himself in the 
words of a historical fragment found amongst 
his papers. 



168 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 



" The moment I obtained leave to enter 
the king's apartment, I hastened thither, 
and scarcely had he seen me, when he quit- 
ted a volume of Tacitus, which lay open be- 
fore him on a little table, and took me in 
his arms: the tear started into his eyes, and 
he said to me, ; This sacrifice of yourself is 
the more generous, as you have thereby ex- 
posed your own life, and will not be able to 
save mine/ I represented to him, that for 
myself there was no danger; and that, in 
his case, it would be so easy to make a good 
defence, as to preclude the idea of any dan- 
ger there also. He replied, ' I am sure of 
it — they'll destroy me; they possess both the 
power and the inclination to do it : — how- 
ever, let us now proceed to the defence, as 
if I were to gain my cause — and in effect I 
shall gain it, for my memory will survive 
unsullied. — But when will the two advocates 
come! 3 He had seen Tronchet at the Con- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHEItBES. 16S 

stituent Assembly : Deseze he did not know, 
but asked me several questions relative to 
him, and was quite satisfied with what I 
told him, 

" He laboured with us each day in ana* 
lysing the various parts of his defence ; point- 
ing out what was most expedient, and re- 
futing such charges in the accusation as were 
unjust, with a degree of calmness and pre- 
sence of mind that astonished his two advo- 
cates as much as myself; and they made the 
proper use of his observations by taking 
notes, and expanding their work. 

" Troxchet, who from nature was cold, 
and more so from prejudice, was touched 
by the candour and innocence of the king; 
and concluded with tenderness a duty he had 
undertaken with indifference. 

45 His counsel, and I myself, entertained 
some hopes of his being released; this we 
communicated to him, and even encouraged 

p 



170 THE LIFE OF M ALESH ERBES. 

the idea: it seemed to alleviate his misery, 
and for several days he dwelt much on the 
subject, but the reading of the daily prints 
opened his eyes, and he proved to us that 
we ought to renounce all expectation of his 
escape. 

" When Deseze had completed his part 
of the defence, he read it to us; and I think 
I never listened to any thing more pathetic 
than the exordium. Tronchet and I were 
totally subdued by it: The king said, c We 
must suppress this; I don't wish to soften 
them/ 

" At a time when we were alone, he said 
to me — 6 1 have one great source of anxi- 
ety: Deseze and Tronchet owe me no- 
thing; they devote their time, their labour, 
perhaps their lives, to me — and how shall I 
acknowledge such services? — I am no longer 
worth any thing — and, should I leave them 
legacies, they will never be paid. 5 ' Sire, — 



THE LIFE OF MALESHEItBES. 171 

their own feelings and posterity will reward 
them: you can still, however, confer on 
them a recompense which will over-pay 
them/ — ' What is that?' — ' Embrace them 
as your friends! 5 The next day he pressed 
them to his heart, and they both shed tears. 

" The day of trial drew nigh; and one 
morning he said to me — ' My sister has 
spoken to me of a worthy priest who has not 
taken the civic oath, and whose obscurity 
might perhaps hereafter save him from per- 
secution: there is his address. I beg you 
will go, speak to him, and prepare him for 
coming to me as soon as they grant me per- 
mission to see him:' — he added: this is a 
very strange errand for a philosopher! for I 
know you are one: but — if you should suf- 
fer as I have done — and be doomed to die as 
I must die, I wish you the same sentiments 
of religion with myself — they would console 
you much more than any philosophy' 
p2 



172 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

" After the debate was over in which his 
counsel and he had been heard at the bar, 
he said to me, ' You are now fully convinced 
that from the first moment I did not deceive 
myself, and that my condemnation was de- 
creed before I was heard/ 

" When I returned from the assembly, 
where we had demanded the appeal to the 
people, and had all three spoken, I men- 
tioned to him that, on going out, I found 
myself surrounded by a great number of 
persons, who had all assured me that he 
should not perish: at least, not until they 
and their friends were no more. He changed 
colour, and said — Do you know those people? 
return to the assembly — make haste to find 
out some of them, and say, that I shall not 
pardon them if one drop of blood be shed 
for me: I did not wish blood to flow, when 
perhaps it might have saved my throne and 
my life ; and 1 do not repent it now. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES* 173 

" It was I who first announced to him the 
decree of death : he was in a dark part of 
the room; his back was turned to a lamp 
which burned on the mantel-piece, his elbows 
rested on a table, and his face was covered 
by his hands. 

" The noise I made interrupted his medi- 
tation; he looked firmly at me, stood up, 
and said: ' For these two hours I have been 
employed in considering whether, during 
the course of my reign, 1 deserved the small- 
est reproach from my subjects: Now- — I so- 
lemnly assure you, M. de Malesherbes, in 
the sincerity of my heart, and as a man go- 
ing to appear before God, that I have inva- 
riably desired the happiness of the people, 
and never formed one wish to the contrary/ 

" I saw that unfortunate monarch once 

more; two municipal officers were sitting 

beside him; he also sat, and was reading. 

One of the officers said to me, talk to him ; 

p3 



174 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

we will not listen. I then informed the 
king, that the priest he had asked for would 
attend him: he embraced me, and said, 
6 Death does not appal me, and 1 have the 
utmost confidence in the mercy of God/ 

To this narrative of Malesherbes, in 
which he speaks much more of his princely 
client than of himself, it may be proper to 
add a few other particulars not less authen- 
tic. 

Malesherbes every morning brought to 
Lewis the various journals and printed 
opinions of the deputies, relative to his trial. 
He prepared the business of every afternoon, 
and remained regularly an hour or two with 
the king. He himself never lay down, with- 
out first reading the several pieces ; and, in 
order not to involve Malesherbes, who dis- 
obeyed the prohibitions of the municipality 
by carrying them to him, he took the pre- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 175 

caution to burn them in the stove of his 
apartment. 

One day that the municipal officers expos- 
tulated with Malesherbes for lending the 
journals to Lewis, because while the prosecu- 
tion was going on, the debates could not but 
distress him, he replied: — " You little know 
the mind of Lewis ; it is a manly mind — he 
has a firm character/' But, said they, another 
day, appearing alarmed for their own respon- 
sibility, you could easily, in this way, convey 
poison or arms to him : " Fear not/* replied 
Malesherbes ; " the king is not like other 
men ; he is religious, and knows how to be 
resigned." 

On coming to the Temple, he found 
Lewis in want of common necessaries: even 
unwholesome food had been sent him by 
the council-general of the Commune. In this 
condition, he was tempted to offer him three 
thousand livres in gold, contained in three 



176 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

rouleaux. " Dear Malesherbes, I accept 
the sum as a loan," said Lewis, " but fancy 
I shall not want it." And, in fact, the 
money remained untouched ; for when, be- 
fore his death, they made an inventory of 
his papers, he was so scrupulous as to observe 
that the money did not belong to him ; and 
had written on each of the parcels, " To M. 
de Malesherbes." He charged a munici- 
pal officer to restore them to him ; but the 
civic rulers took care not to comply; they 
confiscated the money — to their own use — 
as aristocratic coin, stamped with the royal 
image. 

When, with pale cheeks, Malesherbes 
advanced to inform Lewis of his condemna- 
tion, «' y Tis well, 'tis well," he exclaimed ; 
" mv dear Malesherbes, instead of lament- 
ing — oh ! should you not rather wish me the 
only asylum I have left !" 

Malesherbes said to him, " There is still 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHEHBES. 177 

a hope: they are now going to debate the 
question of a respite of execution : the peo- 
ple are humane, and you have been their 
benefactor/' 

When sentence was passed, the king de- 
manded an appeal to the French people . 
Deseze and Tronghet enforced the request ; 
one, with all the warmth of genuine elo- 
quence, the other, with every refinement 
that reason could suggest : but — Males- 
herb es, overpowered by years and sensi- 
bility, could only, with a faultering voice, 
pronounce the following words : 

44 Citizens, 

46 We are really taken unawares 
upon a matter of the last importance, and 
of late I am not in the habit of public speak- 
ing . • . • nevertheless, I would willingly add 
something to the unpremeditated observa- 
tions of my colleagues; but on this subject, 



178 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

I have a multiplicity of ideas — not im- 
bibed from the individual concerned nor 
arising from the present circumstance .... 
Citizens, while I was yet a magistrate, and 
often since, I have deeply reflected on the 
arguments maintained by Tronchet in your 
presence: I had occasion, when I formed 
part of the legislative body, to meditate and 
arrange similar observations — and must lose 
the advantage of them, unless you will per- 
mit me to lay them before you from this 
place to-morrow/ 3 

This address was frequently interrupted 
by the tears of Malesherbes — but all his 
efforts were fruitless: they refused him even 
the delay of twenty-four hours to present his 
remarks; and he returned to the Temple 
with a breaking heart, not knowing how to 
tell Lewis that all hope was at an end. 

On coming before him, his dejected coun- 
tenance, his distracted air, and the tears 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 179 

which rolled from his eyes, spoke but too 
plainly ; at last, struggling to conquer his 
feelings, he broke the dreadful silence, and 
said — " Si*>e, you do not want courage . . . 
your fatal sentence is decreed!!" — "I all 
along expected it," replied Lewis, with a 
calm and tranquil look: " in God's name, 
dear Malesherbes, do not weep: we shall 
meet again in a happier world." 

Malesherbes had come to offer consola- 
tion to Lewis, but he required none : he 
himself consoled his venerable friend, and 
sought to divert his mind by the following 
sally : 

" M. de Malesherbes — they told me in 
my infancy, that when a king of the race 
of Bourbon was 10 die, a tall woman, clad 
in white, was seen to walk at midnight in 
the gallery at Versailles : as you so often 
come this way, have you ^not met the spectre 
in your path ?" 



180 THE LIFE OP MALESHERBE!*. 

This attempt which Lewis made to lessen 
the sorrow of his friend, produced quite a 
contrary effect : his tears flowed the faster, 
and he sobbed aloud. — " Ah ! said the king, 
I trifled only in order to prove to you that I 
was not agitated; how much am I distressed 
to see you so exceedingly afflicted !" 

At length the moment arrived when they 
were to part for ever: Lewis made Males- 
herbes promise to come and see him the fol- 
lowing morning; but he several times vainly 
applied for admission ; the doors were un- 
feelingly shut against him. 

With an agonized heart, Malesherbes 
regained his former residence, designing to 
pass the rest of his days in mourning, and 
in acts of charity. *- 

* He loved to relate an answer made to him by a poor 
man, during his stay at Paris. 

Obliged to go four times every day to the prison of the 
Temple, his extreme age did not allow him to walk, and he 
was compelled to take a carriage. 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 181 

The endearments of his family for a short 
time suspended his sorrows ; but the late 
horrible catastrophe was ever present to his 
view; and he has been known, for many 
days, to preserve the most melancholy si- 
lence. 

His gardens, his woods, his books were 
neglected; an air of general misery was 
spread over his delightful retirement; and 
Malusherbes, continually immersed in me- 
ditation, had, for the first time, lost that 
cheerfulness which never before forsook him 
in any moment of his life. 

One day, particularly, when the weather was very 
aevere, he perceived, on coming out of the vehicle, that 
the driver was benumbed with cold. " My friend/' said 
M alesherbes to him, in his naturally tender manner— 
" you must be penetrated by the cold, and I am really sorry 
to take you abroad in this bitter season/' — " That's nothing 
M. de Malesherbes; in such a cause as this, I'd travel 

to the world's end, without complaining." " Yes — 

but your horses could not." " Sir," replied the honest 
coachman, "My horses are of my way of thinking. 1 * 



1S2 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

They were careful to keep from him all 
the Paris papers: these would only have 
made his wounded mind bleed afresh, by 
presenting to his eyes the hideous particu- 
lars of an execution, the bare idea of which 
caused him to tremble with horror. 

Indeed Malesherbes of himself refrained 
from reading the public journals. From the 
period that France fell a prey to a body of 
cruel incendiaries ; when guilt became a title 
to success, and virtue to persecution : he 
spared his sight the terrific picture of fami- 
lies massacred — of cities depopulated — of 
new bastiles more odious than the former; 
in a word, of death casting his baleful 
and bloody shroud over the greatest empire 
of the globe. Happy was he, who, in those 
days of dismay and desolation, could break 
off all intercourse with the human race ! For 
have we not beheld the proscribed seek refuge 
in woods, and mountains and caverns, and 



THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. J83 

think themselves safer with the wild beast of 
the forest, than amongst the members of re- 
volutionary committees! 

Posterity will never give credit to th e 
long list of political murders perpetrated be- 
fore our eyes: it will not be believed that 
five or six miscreants, without courage, with- 
out talents, and burdened with the weight 
of public execration, could, for two entire 
years, keep all France in a state of subju- 
gation, that she permitted her most valua- 
ble citizens to perish at the block, and their 
assassins to become the most important and 
most active men in the new Republic. 

Whilst abroad our courage procured us 
triumphs — at home we covered ourselves with 
lasting infamy ; we enjoyed the glory of sub- 
duing all Europe by the success of our arms, 
and at that very period, a few villains, who 
did not know how to handle a sword — 
made us shrink beneath their knives. 
Q2 



384 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

A million of Frenchmen overflowed the 
territories of our enemies — and often, in the 
same day, the blood of the son streamed 
upon the field of battle, and that of the fa- 
ther upon the scaffold!* 

Maleshekbes was right in not wishing 
to see that frightful display of assassinations 
and carnage: the spectacle would have been 
too much for his sensibility, and must have 
excited such a tumult in his bosom as would 
probably have destroyed a frame already 
enfeebled by years and intellectual exertion. 

Yet he had reached the age of seventy-two 
without feeling any of those infirmities which 
usually attend longevity : ro kind of excess 
had enervated his youth, and he possessed 
in the evening of his days a greater degree of 



* The father of the famous General Moreau was 
guillotined at Brest, the day on which his son gained the 
victory that secured to us the conquest of Holland. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 185 

health and vigour than most persons in the 
decline of life. 

He gradually returned to his books, and 
his implements of husbandry; again he ap- 
pointed fixed hours for bodily exercise as 
formerly, and sought for new discoveries, 
or tried some useful experiment for the ser- 
vice of humanity, or the advancement of 
agriculture. 

Occupied in projecting the happiness of 
his fellow-citizens, he almost forgot the Re- 
volution and its horrors; like that sage of 
antiquity in a vessel beaten by the tempest, 
and drifting towards a rocky shore, who 
did not feel even the agitation of the waves, 
and continued the work he had begun be- 
fore the storm. 

But — alas! Maleshekbes too was des- 
tined to be swallowed in the revolutionary 
abyss. A dreadful occurrence took place 
that wrung his paternal bosom, and was the 
Q3 



185 THE LIFE OP MALESHERBES. 

sad omen of that calamity which awaited 
himself. 

One day, when with a spade in his hand, 
he was walking in his grounds, he saw ap- 
proaching him four ghastly-looking men, 
with disordered hair and livid complexions : 
he thought he observed these people take the 
direct road to his dwelling: violent terror 
seized him ; his knees bent under him, and 
it was with the utmost difficulty he was able 
to reach the house. 

MALESHERBEshad cause for his fears: the 
men, whose forbidding aspects had alarmed 
him, were the first objects that met his view; 
and the piteous cries of his children but too 
plainly told him what their business was. 

These were four members of the revolu- 
tionary committee of the section of Bondy, 
who cam! to arrest Madame Lepelletier- 
Rosambo, the daughter of Malesherbes, 






THE LIFE OF M ALESHEliBES. 187 

and her husband, once first president of 
the parliament of Paris. 

It is hardly possible to conceive the misery 
of the old man, when he saw himself torn 
from the arms of his much-loved daughter! 
He struck his forehead — uttered loud .lamen- 
tations, and flung himself at the feet of the 
barbarians, beseeching them, in pity, to take 
him with his children. Can a picture of 
greater affliction than this be imagined! 
Young Rosambo, and M. and Madame de 
Chateaubrian, the grandchildren of Males- 
herbes, beheld themselves severed from their 
excellent parents, and were obliged to find 
consolation for their venerable grandfather, 
when they were themselves the victims of the 
deepest despair! The revolutionary satellites 
were insensible to this most affecting scene: 
they spoke not but to hasten the moment of 
separation; and when Malesherbes and 
his grandchildren earnestly implored per- 



Jb8 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

mission to follow M. and Madame de 
Rosambo, they replied, in a tone of de- 
rision, that nothing was easier; and that, 
since they so much desired it, they would 
perhaps the next day come aad conduct them 
also to prison. 

At last, they were forced asunder; and 
Malesherbes was enabled to bid them fare- 
well, only by the hope of seeing fulfilled 
the promise which the assassins had made 
him. That idea even served to restore his 
courage: to him time seemed to move slowly ; 
he waited with impatience for the morrow, 
nor was ever a day of festivity more eagerly 
longed for. 

His dreadful wish was but too well conjr 
plied with: the hired ruffians of the Revo- 
lution were always men of their words when 
they promised to afflict. Malesherbes and 
his grandchildren were arrested, and his 
papers sealed. He himself gave the neces- 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 180 

sary directions for the journey; but ltis ve- 
nerable countenance was serene, his conver- 
sation graceful and gay as in happier times, 
and from his manner of conducting himself, 
a spectator would have supposed he was pre- 
paring for a party of pleasure. 

Notwithstanding this, the report of his 
arrest spread through the village, and all 
the inhabitants ran forth in tears to bid him 
adieu! Neither a dread of the revolutionary 
murderers, nor the presence of an armed 
force, could repress their murmurs at the 
tyrannic act which took their friend and fa- 
ther from amongst them. One exclaimed, 
that to him he owed his little fortune; an* 
other, that he had rescued him from des- 
truction, by assisting him when in distress; 
a third, that he had rebuilt his house des- 
troyed by fire; others that he had bestowed 
the bread of industry on their children : — all 
proclaimed aloud his benevolence and his 



190 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

virtues; and poured upbraidings and curses 
on his persecutors. 

The municipality immediately assembled, 
and resolving that he should not be escorted 
by the soldiers of the police, like the mean- 
est malefactor, unanimouslv decreed to con- 
vey him safely ; and four of the members 
had the gallantry to accompany him to Paris, 
that he might be spared the mortification of 
travelling with hired assassins. 

Malesherbes had hoped to be re-united 
with all his family: but this expectation was 
cruelly disappointed ! They were determined 
he should drink the last drop in the cup of 
bitterness; and the ferocious revolutionists 
took the barbarous precaution of dispersing 
his children in different places of confine- 
ment. His grandson, the young Lepel- 
letier-Rosambo was the only one shut up 
with him in the prison of Les Madelonettes. 

Malesuerbes heard, without emotion, the 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBE3* J91 

bolts of bis dungeon made fast: the fetters 
of tyranny could produce no impression on 
bis tranquil soul. 

Always engaged in exertions for the bene- 
fit of mankind, to which his whole life had 
been dedicated, he still had the happiness 
of his fellow-creature at heart, though he 
was himself reduced to the lowest rank of 
the unfortunate. He instructed his grand- 
son in the principles of a man of honour; 
and often repeated to him that the testimony 
of a clear conscience was the first of bless- 
ings, and afforded to persecuted innocence 
the sweetest consolation. 

The ingenuous simplicity of the child fre- 
quently made him smile with pleasure : he 
was elated on discerning in his young heart 
the germ of a noble nature; and delighted 
to assist its growth by instilling liberal pre- 
cepts, and the lessons of wisdom. His situ- 
ation brought to his mind that of the unfor- 



192 THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 

tunate Lewis, imprisoned with his son, and 
initiating him in the first elements of calcu- 
lation and geography. 

But Malesherbes could procure no ti- 
dings of his other children — and that sepa- 
ration was the only cloud which obscured his 
latter days ; he therefore, with eagerness, so- 
licited the Committee of General Safety for 
the favour of being enclosed in the same 
prison with his family. He had no other 
wish to form; and when, after repeated ef- 
forts, this was granted to him, he appeared 
satisfied, and was heard to complain no 
more. 

If the parting of these virtuous and per- 
secuted people was grievous, the joy of find- 
ing themselves, after so painful an interval, 
again united, suspended for some hours every 
sense of misery. Malesherbes, with the 
most violent emotion, pressed his children 
to his bosom: but the unhappy parent had, 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 193 

alas! only a short time allowed him to share 
their caresses, and he but embraced them 
on the confines of death ! 

His arrival at the prison of Port-libre 
threw those who were confined there into the 
greatest consternation: until then, a faint 
ray of hope had cheered them ; but when 
they saw that neither the exalted virtues, 
nor the long services of Malesherbes could 
save him from persecution, every one trem- 
bled for his own fate, and looked forward 
with dismay. 

An old man, detained at Port-libre, and 
who has published some anecdotes of his 
captivity, mentions, amongst the rest, the 
arrival of Malesherbes at that state-prison. 
" I had been/' he says, " about a month at 
Port-libre, where I was treated with hu- 
manity and respect on account of my po- 
verty and advanced age: one evening, when 
engaged on an interesting subject of conver- 

R 



I9i THE LIFE OF MALESHERBE8. 

sation, we were suddenly informed that 
Malesherbes was come: no one was any 
longer sure what his own doom might be, 
when it appeared that so much worth as he 
possessed could not protect him or his family, 
"Reentered, and the first movement in 
the midst of our general distress was to yield 
the place of honor amongst us to him. I 
think at this moment I see his placid coun- 
tenance/' " The seat you offer me/' said 
he, " belongs properly to yonder old man, 
for I believe he must be my senior." It 
was to me he alluded: we were all greatly 
moved, and he with difficulty preserved his 
composure, so powerfully did our emotion 
affect him. 

Here M'alesu erbes recognised a respectable 
father of a family, who had filled an im- 
portant office under his administration. 
"What/* said he, "M. de Malesherbes — 
are vou here? 5 ' " Alas! am I, my dear fite&BLf* 



THE LIFE OF MALSSHERBES. 195 

replied the veteran : " I have turned male- 
factor in niy old days, and got myself into 
gaol |» 

As soon as he reached Port-libre, lie wrote 
a letter to one of his friends, describing his 
situation. He says, " 1 expect the worst ; 
they will never forgive me for defending the 
hapless Lewis XVI. ! Nevertheless 1 solemnly 
protest, that I glory in sacrificing my life 
for him; and, far from repenting that act, 
would again do the same, were it again to be 
done/' — That letter was transmitted to the 
public register-office, and some principal 
persons there restored it to him, observing 
that it might injure him. 

Malesherbes paused for an instant, and 
answered the superintendent thus: You are 
right: that letter may conduct me to the guillo* 
tine — what then? — it shall go. Such is my 
opinion, and I should be a coward to retract 
it — I have but done my duty. 
k2 



196 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

The letter was in fact handed over to 
Fauquier -Tainville, and furnished him with 
matter for the accnsation of Malesherbes. 
He, when this was brought to him, said, 
with a smile of pity, this contains neither 
grammar nor common sense. 

The dreadful hour now arrived in which 
this excellent and noble family was to fall 
bftieath the sword of assassins, whose fiend- 
like malevolence, not satisfied with their im- 
prisonment, prompted them to feast their 
sight with their mangled bodies! 

Notwithstanding the atrocious system, to 
which, by a sort of refinement in barbarity, 
they gave the semblance of justice, it was 
scarcely to be believed that they would carry 
contempt of decency so far as to butcher the 
defender of Lewis; one expressly named by 
the authority of the National Convention, 
and whom, besides, they could not destroy 
without surpassing in cruelty the most re* 
piorseless of human kind. 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 



19? 



The death of Lepelletier-Rosambo 
showed this devoted family the fate which 
menaced them. He died upon a scaffold for 
having had the honour of defending the rights 
of the French people in the parliament of 
Paris : his inconsolable wife was seen to raise 
her imploring hands to heaven, and beseech 
Omnipotence to unite her again to her hus- 
band, and shorten the period of her sorrows 
by hastening her execution. 

Malesherbes waited for his death with 
firmness, and was prepared to meet the blow ; 
when, on the 2d of Floreal, in the year 2, 
he was carried before the revolutionary tri- 
bunal, along with his daughter and grand- 
children. 

It was at this moment that the daughter 
of Malesherbes, so worthy of him, and 
who resembled him in many respects, took 
leave of Mademoiselle Sombreuil, who had 
saved her father's life on the 2d of Septem- 
r3 



108 THE LIFE 0* MALESHERBES. 

ber. Madame Rosambo, embracing her, ad- 
dressed her in terms which well deserve a 
place in the page of history: — "Mademoiselle, 
You have had the happiness to preserve your 
father- — and 1 have the consolation of dying 
icith mine.** 

Malesherbes and his children were 
brought to trial with Despremenil, Thouret, 
Chapelier, and twelve other accused persons 
unknown to them; and, after something 
that was a mockery of legal proceedings, the 
tribunal condemned them to lose their heads, 
44 being found guilty of conspiring against the 
liberties of the French people; of having sup- 
plied the enemies of the state with considerable 
sums of money> and, finally, of plotting the 
downfal of the National Convention, and the 
restoration of royalty" 

Alas! Malesherbes — for ten years past 
shut up in a solitude which he never left, 
except to fulfil duties the most honourable, 



THE LIFE OF MALKSHERBES. 199 

&nd such as are held in reverence by nations 
the least enlightened :— MiVLESHERBES, who 
had employed his whole life in helping the 
powerless, and relieving the unfortunate, is 
all at once metamorphosed into a conspira- 
tor! Barbarous men ! when you cut him off, 
you should have declared him convicted of 
being the enemy of tyranny, and the friend 
of virtue — of having protected literature 
and the arts; of being learned, modest — 
a rigiil philosopher — a faultless parent. 
These were the qualities which won him your 
hatred — these the crimes of which he was 
guilty; and he conspired only to promote the 
happiness of mankind, and the dignity of 
his country. — But may the scorpions of re- 
morse fill the bosoms of his murderers, and 
his blood be on their heads! 

Malesherbes heard unmoved his own 
sentence; but the condemnation of his 
daughter and grand-daughter tore his heart: 



200 THE LIFE OF M ALESHERBES. 

the thought of seeing two weak and helpless 
creatures perish, w hose very sex should have 
saved them from proscription, shook his for- 
titude. 

Being taken back to the Conciergtrie, his 
courage returned: — and he exhorted his chil- 
dren to prepare for death. 

Should we attempt to draw this family of 
virtue waiting for the hour of dissolution, it 
would be impossible to finish the picture; the 
tear of sensibility would blot the colouring; 
nor is it to the eyes, but to the fancy alone, 
that images so mournful can be displayed. 
The following lines by A. Segur, though 
they bear the stamp of sentiment, yet but 
imperfectly express all that is comprised in 
a moment so dreadful . 



THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. §01 

Quel est done ce vieillard ? . . . et par quelle injustice . . . 

Quoi! Malesherbes, e'esttoi quon entrame au supplies ! 

Ta fiile y marche aussi ; son epoux, ses enfans 

Sont frappes a la fois, Tun sur l'autre expirans! 

Trois generations s* eteignent comnie une ombre ! 

Homme pur calme — toi dansta demeure sombre: 

Qui connut tes vertus, pour toujours est en deuil; 

La tendre humanite gemit sur ton cercueil. 

Tes bourreaux sont fletris ; ta memoire est cherie ! 

L'honneur de ton supplice a couronnS ta vie. 



What time-worn form appears? Thine can it be, 
Malesherbes ! And is the axe prepar'd for thee? 
Thy daughter too — thy sou — their blooming race, 
Together folded in Death's cold embrace ! 
They who for thee should weep with thee have bled, 
But calmly rest thou in thy darksome bed ! 
Friend of mankind ! a world deplores thy doom; 
And Fity bends a mourner o'er thy tomb : 
Thy foes have fled ; thy name's rever'd by all, 
And thy pure life crown'd by a glorious fall. 



When the fatal bell was rung, Males- 
herbes recovered all his wonted cheerfulness ; 
having paid to nature the tribute of feeling, 



202 THE LIFK OF MALESH£RB£*. 

he desired to set his children an example 
of magnanimity; his looks exhibited the 
sublime serenity of virtue and innocence, 
and taught them to view death undismayed. 

In crossing the court of the Conciergerie, 
from feebleness, he struck his foot against a 
stone — " Oh" said Malesherbes to the per- 
son next him, " that is what they term an tin- 
lucky presage — now, a Roman in my place 
would have gone back;" — and he proceeded 
smiling. 

When he ascended the cart, he conversed 
with his family, unaffected by the clamours 
of the ferocious populace; then, on arriving 
at the foot of the scaffold, took a last and 
solemn farewell of his children: and imme- 
diately after, was dismissed into eternity. 

Malesherbes died aged seventy-two 
years, four months, and fifteen days. He 
was, perhaps, the wisest and best man of 



TllE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 203 

his time; and his character will descend 
without a stain to posterity. 

The inflexible foe of arbitrary power, and 
the undaunted defender of the oppressed, 
throughout his life he lost no opportunity of 
drying np the tears of the afflicted, and ne- 
ver caused one to flow. The unassuming 
scholar, the liberal patron of polite letters, 
he was not content with inculcating in his 
writings the precepts of virtue, but gave the 
example in his conduct. 

Some foreigners have endeavoured to tar-^ 
riish his fame, by accusing him, in a libel 
printed at Berne, of being a philosopher. 
This is a singular reproach! If philosophy 
be the love of wisdom, Malesherbes well 
deserved the accusation. But the Revolu- 
tion, \^hile it confounded ideas of every 
kind, also changed the meaning of words: 
Thus, because some villains have usurped 
the title of patriots, patriotism is called 
crim . ^'?^o fipnf!^, clad hi the sacerdotal 



204 THE LIFE OF MALESHERBES. 

habit, presided at the massacres of St. Bar- 
tholomew, piety is termed fanaticism; and 
because the factious have availed themselves 
of the authority of philosophers, philoso- 
phy and sedition are become synonymous: 
but the balance seems to be again restored ; 
and this confusion of terms will, doubtless, 
shortly vanish. 

The government has conferred honour on 
itself, by ordering the bust of Malesfierbes 
to be placed amongst the statues of those 
great men whose names reflect lustre upon 
their country. 

All the fine arts should combine to per- 
petuate his memory: Sculpture should bid 
his features live again; Poetry should cele- 
brate his virtues ; and Eloquence lament over 
his grave. 

THE END. 

LB S ?9 



OYS AND SON, PRINTSRS, MARK£T-PI<ACE, BATH. 



